Scheduling struggle stressing Washington students

Image from DALL·E.

Every year at Washington, students express their dissatisfaction with the scheduling of classes. Collectively all the grades gather to pick and choose their classes in the spring. After that students receive their schedules a week before the new school year starts. Usually, there are not that many students who have complaints about their schedules; however, this year seems to hold the record for the most mistakes in schedules. While some students wish to drop out or switch from an AP class to a regular one, other students just don’t have classes that they desperately need. Several students at Washington have complained about not being able to take a language class or an art class to fulfill their requirements in order to graduate. A glitch in the system or perhaps just carelessness could be the reason for these issues. Nonetheless, students haven’t gotten any explanations as to why they can’t get a particular class.

Some students wish to take specific classes to get into a good college. This year counselors have asked students to fill out a google form and request a schedule change. Although they have been given this form, students are only allowed to change one class in their schedule. This has frustrated many students since several of their classes have been incorrectly given. One student expressed her concern with the schedule messing up her graduation requirements. Needing another year of language she had put Spanish 2 down but was stuck with Digital Imaging. Along with extra work, unnecessary pressure was put on this student to go and change her class. The school has stated since the beginning that seniors at Washington get top priority for classes, but this year has proven that those promises have not been fulfilled. More than ever before seniors have gotten placed in the wrong elective or have not gotten an AP class they want. When picking classes students are told to make a list and prioritize from most wanted class to least. But students are wondering what the whole point of the list is if it isn’t being used properly.

While students understand that counselors are constantly bombarded with emails, perhaps creating a better system to allow students to get classes is an effective way to prevent problems. Hiring more counselors or maybe getting the counselors more help is a way of doing this. There are only a couple of counselors who need to manage the schedules of hundreds of students. This issue seems to not be getting any better. Some people are suggesting letting students take over. Being at a mature age, students should be able to pick and choose their classes themselves. This method would be similar to the way students have to pick their classes in college.

Along with the issues of scheduling students also wish to take more classes but aren’t able to since they are limited to six. Some suggestions that were made for this were a summer school option for extra classes students wanted but couldn’t take during the school year. This would allow students to explore more subjects and take classes they need. Although students suggest these different options, actually implementing them would take a lot of planning and organizing. For now, Washington students hope that teachers and administrators acknowledge these issues and try moving forward by considering these ideas.