It’s another school day, and you’re waiting for the bell to ring, but instead of the tone that normally signals the beginning of class, there’s an annoying train whistle sound that makes you want to plug your ears and run far, far away. The next morning, you prepare to be assaulted by the same noise, only to be surprised again by a different bell.

If there’s a pattern to the bell schedule, it sure hasn’t been discovered. So why is making the bells consistent such a complicated problem?

Secretaries Jeanette Vaughn and Maria Medina are powerful people. They program the bells for the regular schedule, short days, long days, and assemblies.

This year, their job was a little trickier because of the eight-minute passing periods. Having both a two-minute and a five-minute bell seemed silly, but being the wonderful people that they are, Vaughn and Medina wanted to give students a little more than just a two-minute warning.

“We decided to do a three-minute bell,” said Vaughn. “We compromised.”

Unfortunately, no one warned the students of the change. The resulting confusion prompted the administration to make the switch to only a two-minute bell, and as of September 16, the three-minute bell no longer exists.

Don’t blame the secretaries, though, if the bell is a minute or two off. The master clock that controls all the other clocks in the classrooms sometimes fails to communicate with the clock that controls the bell system. If the bell rings at the wrong time, it’s “[probably] because the one clock isn’t talking to the other clock,” said Vaughn.

What else should you know about the bells?

There is no set schedule for assemblies, so every time we have one, the bells are laboriously re-programmed. The switchboard is ancient and not entirely user-friendly, and the process takes a half an hour to complete manually typing in each time and pairing it with the appropriate tone, then double-checking once the job is done.

Although the bell system is old, there have been no serious suggestions regarding a new switchboard or control system, even during the upcoming remodel.

The occasional mistake is inevitable, so next time you find yourself cursing the bells for being inaccurate, unhelpful and generally annoying, remember that valuable time went into making sure we have any bells at all.