By Tatyana Garcia and Colette Zaborniak / Perry High School
Everyone recognizes it – the conference bell, ringing loud and clear allowing students struck with boredom to participate in their clubs and escape the mundane routine of class. But is this 30 minutes of free time a beneficial factor to Perry High School?
“It’s a great opportunity for kids to do something for another class such as homework, or do something productive.” said Senior Ciera Woodfin.
Some students however, do not feel so optimistic about this bell.
“It’s boring,” said Kaitlyn Kauffmann. “I’d rather be in a different class.”
English teacher Jennifer Kelma expresses a similar opinion.
“Conference period, in my opinion, is a waste of time. It’s great for clubs, but not everybody goes to clubs,” she said.
Principal Dan Serrano explained the reason behind conference period.
“The state has mandated that students have to have a minimum number of instructional minutes in order to graduate, so our districts way of doing it because of the block schedule is to put that conference period in so we meet those instructional minutes,” he said.
Perry High School will be keeping conference period for some time, for without these 30 minutes of free time every Tuesday and Wednesday Perry would not meet the minimum number of instructional minutes required. All teacher and students will have to respect and participate in the familiar jingle of the conference bell.
