All about the bell songs

Junior+Ben+Derting+does+the+worm+to+the+bell+song

Bryanna Pender

Junior Ben Derting does the worm to the bell song

For the last seven years, the school has played pop songs from the 1950s to the 2000s over the intercom a minute before the tardy bell. Throughout the year, there have been rumors and questions about said songs like “who chooses them?” and “why do we have bell songs?”

Believe it or not, Vice Principal Teresa Moore is ultimately in charge of the bell songs.

“Kids say ‘Oh can we do this song?’ and teachers or whoever will say ‘Oh let’s do this song,’” Moore said. “So we’ll listen to it and see if it’s school appropriate and then play it if we can.”

Moore has a list of potential songs from the counselors and the fine arts teachers who recommend songs.

“Mr. Martin makes the bell songs,” Moore said. “He’ll say ‘hey, I got you a new bell song.’ I’m like ‘OK, I’ll see if we can play it.’ Then, we’ll just play it.”

Former Principal Randy Cobb brought the idea of bell songs from his previous school to let students know that they have a minute to get to class before they will be counted as tardy.

“Without the bell songs, I would just confuse the two bells,” junior Kristina Birkeland said.

Students like junior Ben Derting finds the bell songs repetitive over time and the songs picked aren’t “in,” i.e., they are not popular today.

“I think there should be a vote for the bell song,” Derting said.