by Jordyn Newsome

Schedule changes are something that every student must deal with once the school year starts up. For many students, they can be a hassle to deal with each year. But why is this? What makes schedule changes so frustrating for some, and how are these changes put into place?

Mr. Ellis, one of the counselors who helps with scheduling, gave insight into how the process works. At the beginning of the school year you can request a schedule change during the first week of school, but we’re doing it for two weeks. After that, if a student needs a schedule change, the teacher and the parent has to be in agreement that we’re making a change in the best interests of the student.”
How is what’s in the best interest of the student decided? Ellis said, “So, in the early spring area, sometimes it can be as early as late February, early March. Teachers can make recommendations for the core classes, language arts, math, science, social studies and world language. And they make that recommendation based on how the student did first semester and how they’re currently doing as far as recommending either on level vs honors vs an AP class. And most of the AP classes are during your junior and senior year. And then students are given an opportunity to weigh in on what elective classes they would like to take.
Ellis explained that once the information comes in, it gets loaded into the system. “Then it’s pushed back out where students and parents can have a time period, typically a week or so, to where they can review it so that they can approve it or request to change it. It can be to change from on level to honors or maybe go to honors to on level. It can be changing an elective class. Then the counselors go in and make those adjustments, then again it’s pushed back out another time, so parents and students have that opportunity to review it and provide their input, and then we adjust the schedule.”
“Now, we take that information and then the curriculum assistant principle and loads it into what’s called a master schedule. It will schedule most of the students schedule; it can do it completely or it may only schedule it so much, but then the counselor has to go in and add or rearrange to try their best to make it line up with what the students requested.”
Lauren Jennings, a sophomore who had considerable issues with her scheduling this year, said, “My schedule got messed up so badly to the point I have to take World History virtually. I don’t like the class; it’s hard for me to focus, and it’s filled with a bunch of seniors and juniors who have to retake classes, which isn’t a good environment for me.”
Jennings said that the schedule problems took a long time to get fixed. “I was talking with an administrator for months before the 24-25 school year started and they said it would be correct the day I get my schedule. Three things were messed up and it took two weeks to fix it through two, maybe three different people. There is no reason schedules should be getting messed up if we say what classes we got recommended and what we want to take the school year before. Especially because counselors can already see what classes we have taken in our transcripts.”
Jennings feels that changes should be implemented in the system to make it better or generally more efficient. “They should have more than counselors be able to change the schedules. We should have other people working on them besides the same three people. We should have magnet coordinators working on them like graduating counselors, and other admin like vice principals rather than three people having to be overwhelmed with thousands of students, especially because I have to try to get out the seniors first. They should have at least two to three people working per grade to fix schedules; they should also let more people know how to fix it because not everyone can see QR codes to fix schedules. Maybe they say it on announcements to send them out through emails or let them let students know during homeroom.”
Jennings acknowledges that some students are at fault because they aren’t scanning the codes or aren’t paying attention during announcements; however, “It should be more accessible for kids to change their schedules. It should be more convenient as some teens don’t have updated phones, or don’t have phones at all. Maybe they should hand out phones or let kids go to the counselor by scheduling appointments, as that could be helpful, too.”
While most students didn’t have to go through such a hassle that Lauren did, it’s a good indicator of how students with faulty schedules tend to feel about it. Angel said, “At the beginning of school, I went to one class two times. Then, I checked my schedule and it was just changed. So I got two of them, 2nd period was art class, 4th period was art class, both the same thing again. I tried to ask them to change it but they didn’t change it. I dunno why it never changed.
Angel elaborated that in the second week, a teacher who helped him told him to go change it. So then it was fixed. I decided to change my 4th period and keep my 2nd period so, that’s all.” When asked if something like this had happened before, Angel replied, “Um, I’m not sure, I don’t remember. But I don’t think so, no.”
Geometry teacher Mr. Polizzi, said he hadn’t seen an upsurge in students switching out of his class. “Not particularly, no; it kinda seems to happen regardless every year. Students change out, not more than was anticipated or expected.” Polizzi said he had heard of other teachers mentioning issues with schedules, and the extent of this. “I’ve heard of that. I don’t really have a good sense for it, I just really focus on my classes. Frankly, I mostly know Geometry teachers, there’s only three of us so…I’ve heard anecdotally things about it, but…” When asked if there’s been more or less students switching out, he replied with: “Pretty much the same.”
When asked if he’s felt that there has been an uprise in complaints about schedules this year, Mr. Ellis said, “Well from the information that I’ve heard, it appears to be less than usual. But I know that sometimes there’s more talk amongst students that doesn’t come to us. But from what I can tell it appears to be less. This is my 10th year here.”
Overall, there seems to be a sort of disconnect between staff and students when it comes to the issue of schedule changes. While it seems to be a normal day for staff, some students seem to be actively struggling to simply understand how their school day should go. Hopefully next year, this problem or at least the seeming disconnect won’t be as prevalent.