Ringing In a New Day In an Old Way

The ringing of a historical bell at Jefferson Village School each morning started as an off-hand practice but has grown into a daily ritual for the school’s technology

coordinator, Bill “Mr. Bill” Howard.

According to a plaque attached to the bell’s platform, the bell was originally installed in the bell tower of the former Jefferson Village School in 1911, and was

restored in 2011 to become part of the new Jefferson Village School which opened that year.

The bell was manufactured by the C.S. Bell Company, of Hillsboro, Ohio, according to information on its yoke. It sits on a wheeled cart in the school’s entryway.

Howard said he started ringing the bell when he would come in each morning at around 7:30 a.m., “just kind of a cute little thing, walk by the bell and stop for a

moment and give it a clang, and come down to my office.”

Then, for a time, he stopped.

“People were coming to me and saying, ‘Why don’t you ring the bell? You didn’t ring the bell this morning. You alright? Something wrong? Did you forget?'” Howard

said.

Howard returned to the practice and his bell ringing has turned into a daily ritual, but he still does it at about 7:30 a.m., about half an hour before students

start arriving.

Howard isn’t sure why he doesn’t ring the bell when students are present, and said he could ring it at 8:15 a.m. when an electronic bell sounds the start of the

school day.

“Could I ring the bell at that time? Yeah, that’d be cool. It’d be conversational, but then it would probably die away, just a normal thing,” he said. Howard also

expects work demands during that time would make it difficult for him to be available at that time.

Howard said he considers the beginning of the school day and the ringing of the bell to be a celebration.

Now in his fifth career, following work as a plant engineer at a paper mill and a planner and project manager for the Passamaquoddy Tribe, Howard really enjoys

interacting with and teaching both students and teachers.

“Nothing gives me more pleasure than to have a classroom full of kids and show them something as far as technology goes,” he said.

Howard promotes ringing of the bell during events at the school, offering a chance to ring it to curious children. Aside from those opportunities, whoever is in the

building early enough each morning will be the bell’s only audience for now.

“Randy Gargan, our [head] custodian, he’ll be anywhere in the building and he’ll hear the bell and say ‘All rise!'” Howard said.

The bell-ringing is both fun and celebratory, Howard said, and he tries to ring it often.

“It’s there, let’s ring it.”