Stingarees and Schedule Sprees

By Lilith Berrios, Staff Writer
October 26, 2017

It’s the beginning of the school year, and you’re already upset with your schedule. You go to change it and find the counselors’ office is already packed with students trying to fix their schedules. You grumble and soon you become one of them.

According to assistant principal Ms. Leal, between 300-500 students go to the attendance office just in the first few weeks of school to change their schedules.

Many students encounter this exact scenario at the beginning of every school year. Most of them think their schedule changes should be prioritized and fixed faster. “It should be a quicker process and should be worked on more during the summer so that not many people have problems,” stated junior Cierra Rodgers. Other solutions, suggested by senior Anivette Wong, include putting aside more time to change schedules and to have each grade level given equal time.

How to avoid needing a schedule change:

When filling out your subject selection form, remember to fill out the corresponding course sequence with the class you chose.
Don’t forget to turn in the form on time!
Choose electives you know you won’t try to change later.

Source: Assistant Principal Ms. Leal

“Mostly it’s students that change their schedules for unnecessary reasons such as wanting a new elective because they don’t like what they chose or because they don’t like the teacher,” said 9^th grade counselor Mr. Lorenzo. “Only students with emergencies should get an immediate schedule change.”

The counselors try to focus first on the students who absolutely need a schedule change. Those include students who have repeating or missing classes and electives they have already taken before, said Mr. Lorenzo.

The problems tend to begin the year before, said Ms. Leal, when students are choosing their subjects for the following year. There’s such a rush to get the forms filled out and turned in that many students make mistakes that will affect them later.

To try to shorten the time schedule changes take up, counselors recommend choosing the correct classes and making sure to not choose electives you might not want later. “Choose the correct classes and write the correct course sequence on the subject selection paper and then turn it on time,” stated Ms. Leal. Doing just that helps both you and your counselors get everything done quick and easy so that there’s more time left for other issues to be solved.