With 5 minutes left of class, West students eagerly stare at the ticking clock, awaiting the sound of the bell to signal the end of class. The time ticks by and a faint sound can be heard. This sound is unlike last year’s bells, for new bells have been implemented.

Vice Principal, Mark Rigby explained the reasoning behind the new intercom system.

“Because of things that have happened over the last couple of years, we needed to do a couple of upgrades and changes to the intercom system,” Rigby said. “This is an old building so there were a lot of areas that are dead zones that were not reached by the intercoms, and we had to add speakers and move stuff around. So when we did that, we upgraded what’s called the ‘server,’ the head unit for the intercom system, so that’s why we have new bells because they put a whole new system in.”

Senior Stephana Ocneanu is not too happy about the change.

“I think that the bells are way too quiet because in some of our classes we have discussions until the last minute, so when you hear a bell that’s that soft it’s like you’re going to be late to your next class,” Ocneanu said.

The new intercom not only affects students but teachers as well.

“They’re a little soft and hard to hear yeah. I’ve already been late to a class because of them, ” said paraprofessional Michael Leaks.

The school is still trying to fix the issues with the new system

“It’s a work in progress, everything’s not finished yet. We’re gonna fix it. There’s work that still has to be done, and so we turned up the amplifier yesterday and there are other things that have to be done,” Rigby said.