Assistant Principal Mrs. Tabatha Duffy reported around 400 requests for course schedule changes through a Google Form shared with students on August 13.
Students continued to encounter missing blocks and double classes by the first day of school on August 26, two weeks after the schedules had been released.
From March to August, Interim Principal Mrs. Andrea LaPira and Assistant Principals Mr. Tom McLaughlin and Duffy work in the process to accommodate as many schedule requests as possible.
The team verifies schedules over the summer using specific reports to account for various factors.
“There were probably a lot more things that people just never saw because we fixed them before schedules were open to the public,” Duffy said. “We could run reports and see it. Then there are the ones who need a conversation to resolve.”
School Counselor Mr. Travis Edwards notes a decline in errors compared to the previous year.
“We’re hopeful that that extended time, [the extra week for decisions] and increased time to talk either during meetings with families and meetings with students about their schedules,” Edwards said.
Issues can arise due to a domino effect. Adjusting for one factor can mean undoing several other schedules in the process.
According to Duffy, issues like empty blocks are reminders for students to prepare for open conversation with counselors.
“The hole is kind of just a placeholder,” Duffy said. “It’s not that we think they’re not going to take [a] fourth class. It’s that we can’t fix it on our own, without talking to the kid or the parents, or whoever it is, and having them make some kind of decision about what they want to put in that spot.”
Junior Lili Fletcher was placed into AP Language instead of English 11 Honors at the beginning of the year.
“I filled out the form and nothing happened,” Fletcher said. “So I assumed it would be resolved, and on the form, I marked it as ‘missing graduation requirement.’ I thought that would be important enough that something would be done about it before school started.”
She had filled out the form a week and a half before school started. The issue was later resolved thanks to advocacy from AP Language teacher Mrs. Stephanie Lehman.
“I guess I just wish that someone emailed me and let me know that it was changed or they at least noticed it, because I had no idea if they had even seen my form submission or if it was being resolved at all,” Fletcher said.
Sophomore and aspiring doctor Veronica King wants to replace Public Speaking—an elective she did not put as one of her choices—with a science-related class.
“I was really upset about it, and I was just like, why?” King said. “Why would they do this to someone’s schedule, if they had the option to give me the one that I wanted? Why ask us for what we want, if they’re not going to actually take it into account?”
Changing electives is not an accepted reason for schedule changes, so in fear of her request being rejected, King has avoided talking to her counselor so far.
“Sure, it’s good to have social skills, but I feel like, because of yearbook and stuff, I’m okay with that,” she said. “I don’t need to take a whole class when I could be doing something that would actually help me improve myself and help me get ahead of my academic career.”
She believes they should try to release schedules earlier.
“I think they should try and give everyone what they want if they don’t want to deal with these issues. But I know it’s hard to do that because everyone wants different things,” King said.
Duffy encourages open communication between students and staff to improve the scheduling process.
“From your perspective, there might be things that we don’t think of because we’re not students going through it, we’re adults organizing it,” Duffy said. “So I always like to get feedback from the people who are actually experiencing the thing, because it just might be something we didn’t think of.”
