In recent years, students signed up for classes in late May and get their schedules at the start of the new school year. This year, things have changed. Students signed up for classes and received their schedules in February. Once classes have been picked, students are not permitted to drop courses.
When counselor, Mrs. Haley, was asked why the decision was made to change the scheduling system, she responded, “We had to make some timeline adjustments as far as changes being made due to school starting on August 13th this coming year, as we have to have the master schedule done much sooner.” This is because next year, school will be starting earlier, and administrators and counselors are doing all that they can to ensure that students are in the correct classes that they need to be in. They do this by making certain restrictions against dropping classes.
In recent years, once students got their classes at the beginning of the school year, they would be able to test out of the classes to determine whether they would want to switch into an easier or harder class. These changes have made it to where the counselors do not have to continually drop and add classes for a large number of students. Junior, A’Ric Motten, was asked if he thought the change was a good idea, and his response was, “No, I think it is a bad idea, if a class is bad, I want to be able to change it.”
Many students are not sure how this will work out and whether this change will be permanent in the future. Students are worried about the classes to choose others wonder if they choose a class they may be more than they can handle, what will happen if they need to drop the class. Mrs. Haley responded, “If a student is struggling with a class they should first talk to their teacher to address the issues. If that does not resolve it then they should get their counselor to help resolve it.” Before the student starts to panic they should try to resolve the issue themselves before taking it to the counselors to try to drop the class.
As the changes are being made and students are trying to figure out what classes to take, the staff here at Riverbend is also working its hardest to make sure that this change goes as smoothly as possible.