Around this time of year, scheduling for new classes is a concern for both students and counselors. An email was sent out to the student body on Dec. 3, saying counselors will be putting a hold on 2nd semester class changes until Jan. 7 due to registration.
Questions began circulating around the school:
Why are counselors waiting until Jan. 7 for 2nd semester changes? Isn’t that only a week away from the actual semester?
Isn’t that only going to stress everyone out more?
What’s the reason for the pause?
Isn’t this their job?
What do they have going on that’s more important than this?
Talking to Sarah O’Connor in the counseling office led to some answers.
One concern students have with scheduling is the deadline for Semester 2, and not being able to change their schedules in time.
But the counselors are worried about their own deadlines for registration for the 2026-27 school year.
O’Connor kindly showed me her calendar, and though I couldn’t take a picture of it for students’ confidentiality, I can describe it as utterly FULL.
O’Connor explained that she’s been getting scheduled meetings almost every minute with students who either want a schedule change or want help registering for next year’s classes. However, they have to put a hold on semester 2 changes because administration needs registrations finished by mid-January, giving counselors only until before Christmas break to lock it all in with students at the high school.
“Then the first week of January, we’re going down to the eighth grade and getting them figured out.” O’Connor said. “Then we submit those, and all of that gets locked into Infinite Campus in mid-January so that the administrators in the district office can then start figuring this out.”
The counselors, along with principal Mr. Allen, work on putting together every teacher’s schedule on the Hub – O’Connor describes it as a “large puzzle”.
After all of this, THEN counselors are finally able to focus on 2nd semester changes at the high school. With over 200 kids asking for a 2nd semester change, administrators and counselors already know that a new process needs to be placed for next year.
“Not to say we won’t change schedules,” O’Connor said. “It’s just we won’t necessarily be changing things for lunch, being with friends, requesting specific teachers, or trying to finagle certain class periods around because they just want something at a certain part of the day.”
