The 2023-2024 school year at Summerville High started off with what seemed to be scheduling chaos but now seems to be resolved, leaving some students questioning: What happened? 

This year, some students experienced problems with their schedules. Every year, scheduling issues occur—not every schedule can be perfect, and creating each individual students’ schedule takes time and attention to detail, as explained in an interview by Mr. Christopher, SHS school principal.

“It is such an individualized thing, which is why we take the time to look at each individual transcript.” 

This year, some notable conflicts arose wherein students did not have enough classes, had extra classes, or even, as in the case of junior Isaiah Hull, both of those things at once. 

“I didn’t have a seventh period class and I had two eighth period classes…I was put in both English and Chemistry for the same period,” stated Hull. 

The process for changing schedules with conflicts this year was a little bit different than previous years. Despite the newly instituted Quick Response (QR) code, some students still had to go into the office to get their schedules fixed, which could be time consuming for those involved. 

“I had to be there for quite a few days to try to fix it, but eventually it got fixed” said Hull.

Time spent in the office also had an effect on teachers. First of all, students going to get their schedules fixed increased [student’s] time spent out of class. Some students would take class time to go to the office and meet with their Grade Level Coordinators (GLCs) to make scheduling corrections. 

Not only did the time students were spending out of class, due to the scheduling conflicts themselves or having to go to the office, have an effect on teaching capabilities and scheduling conflicts also increased some teachers’ workloads. 

As Mrs. Caldera explains, “Just trying to communicate to the students—I had to do a lot more emailing and checking-in to see where the student was.” 

Motivations for schedule change requests were not limited to fixing errors. While some students went in to correct mistakes in their schedules, others requested changes be made for the purpose of getting the classes they wanted to take. 

“A lot of students come in and get their schedule changed because they didn’t like it,” Mr. Christopher noted. 

Between students requesting to change their schedules to fix errors and going in to request that they be moved into the classes they want to take, those in the office were entrenched in schedule change requests. 

During this school year and school years to come, it is important to remember that the Grade Level Coordinators and office staff are always diligently working to fix errors and give students the support they need.