It’s the first day of school, there are students surrounding the “schedule boards”, just like every other year.
Returning students are used to this sort of set up, not very efficient and quite bothersome. Small text on average pieces of printer paper.
Immediately as students get their schedules, they notice classes they haven’t signed up for. I did not choose a math elective, how come I got put in one?
Having done all I needed to do in order to take a college math class, which meant signing many online documents with my parents, and even joining zoom meetings to know what to expect! And without warning, with no absolute sign of what happened, I was placed in an elective math class.
This was also frustrating for people who saw their classes on Powerschool the same day, and then got a different schedule in the first period. With me being one of those students.
With all of summer break, and the second half of the last school year when classes were picked, how did our schedules get so messed up? That can be put on the fact that the counselors did not plan ahead, leaving a very messy start to the school year.
And believe me, things only got worse from there. As the week progressed, students of course wanted to fix their classes as soon as possible, myself included. So the next logical step was to go and talk to a student counselor about it.
Things were crazy. Not running around and screaming crazy, but pretty close to it. The line that went into the counselors office was almost as long as the lines during last year’s homecoming ticket sales! And just like that line, the end result was not that good.
Students were being told to leave the office as soon as they came in, holding appointments with the counselors was nearly impossible. The only way to reach them was through filling out the google form from the school website, which is atrocious in its own right.
Even then, for seniors apparently the list was backed up to the 200s near the end of the second week! When I got told that, I felt that there was no way I’d be able to fix my schedule.
Until I got called in the next day, along with a handful of other students, the majority being seniors. When you think about it, senior schedules really should be handled before all other grades. It only makes sense, and especially since senior schedules cannot be changed as easily as freshmen.
As I was waiting for my turn to speak to the counselor, I talked with a few people around me. Some were put into classes that made no sense, the issue being they had already gotten the credits needed for a class, or they never asked for a class they got put in.
Eventually it was my turn, and I had the shortest talk with my counselor. Which I cannot really be mad about considering the twenty plus people waiting behind me.
All and all, counselors should really start working on student schedules a few weeks before school starts, and not wait until the very last minute. Unless they want a mob of angry students at their door every year, who knows.
