Students and faculty alike have mixed feelings about the new public announcement system.

Principal Brent Daniels said that it was installed a month ago to increase the safety and ease of communication for the school.

“In order for the district to maintain a safe learning environment for our students and staff, there was an upgrade needed from our current PA system,” Daniels said.

The new system, called Calypso, can now communicate with all regions of the school, including Millennium and even the middle school, which Daniels said is vital for the safety of the students. It also allows for pre-recorded messages in case of an emergency where a message cannot be made in live time. Neither feature was available in the old system.

“Moving forward, we’re looking to leverage it not only for student safety but student learning,” Daniels said, referring to the classroom conveniences that the system offers.

Two-way communication between any classroom and the main office is now available, and the PA system, which is attached to the projection system, allows the office to push video through Calypso that can go out to all classrooms.

Unfortunately, the joining of the new system and the new bell schedule has caused issues. The bell is consistently early and occasionally goes off at inopportune times during class. Of the students interviewed, all were either annoyed or indifferent about the system.

“I can hear a little better, but it always seems to be off time and ends up interrupting class,” senior Elliot Gordon said.

He gave the teachers credit for attempting to fix the problems, but “technology around here never works,” Gordon said.

Junior Maryse Suppiger said that it “doesn’t seem very hard” to coordinate the new schedule with the bells, and that it is an annoyance.

Daniels, however, is much more optimistic.

“Obviously with anything that’s new, there’s gonna be a learning curve, so at this point we’re just focusing on the primary nuts and bolts,” Daniels said.

In addition, Daniels said, the disturbances were caused by work that “should not have been happening during school hours.”

But for Gordon, Suppiger, and junior Justin Boltwood, the problem also lies in the actual sound of the bells. Boltwood said not only are the announcements just as quiet, but the bell is “toneless” and “does not reflect school spirit.”

“It doesn’t make any positive difference,” Boltwood said. He said that it was a waste of money that could have been used for other causes.

Gordon agrees that the “pling, pling, pling” sound is annoying, and that last year’s ringing sound was preferable.

Luckily, the system is able to integrate any pre-recorded sound, and Daniels is open to any feedback or criticism that the students can give to “help the learning environment.”

“We’re looking for staff, student, and parent feedback on ways to adjust the system to make it more effective,” Daniels said.