The task of schedule changes has felt long and painful to many. The inbox of school counselors have been filling with schedule change requests. For some, they will not hear a response for days. By the time some schedules get switched students have already missed a full week of content in their new class. In my opinion it would be most beneficial to adjust the time period in which students can request a schedule change.

Park counselors create a google form every year where students can request a schedule change. There are rules around what warrants a justified schedule change. A schedule conflict would be an example of something that would warrant a schedule change. The school does not allow schedule changes for people who want to be in a class with their friends. Nevertheless, that has not been stopping anyone. Though it is hoped by the administration that students are honest about their reason behind a schedule change, there is no way to determine whether or not a student is being truthful. This could be a factor that results in the long wait time. Unjustified schedule change requests are taking up valid space and time. If unnecessary schedule changes are taking up time, counselors have to make time for both valid schedule requests and untruthful ones. This lengthens the schedule change process even more, which is completely unfair to students with valid schedule concerns.

The time period in which a student can begin requesting a schedule change doesn’t start until a few days before the new school year starts. This leaves very minimal time for everyones’ schedule needs to be met which is what results in students falling behind. The window to change schedules should begin earlier and end earlier. This would get kids into the correct classes sooner and result in missing less in-class content.

This process is long and stressful for both students and teachers. It is an important reminder to everyone to give each other grace and time in order to make the beginning of the school year as smooth as possible. The concerns regarding students falling behind are hard to address considering entirely halting class for one person is utterly inconvenient. If Park were to allow schedule changes earlier into the summer there would be more time for counselors to work on the adjustment. This would also mean there would be less overlap with the fixing of a schedule and the start of the school year.  It is important for students to be missing as little content as possible. If Park sets an earlier deadline for when schedule change requests need to be in students would miss less class material.  The goal is to have the least amount of overlapping time with the start of the school year and the allotted time for schedule change requests. Therefore, the most efficient way to address this concern would be adjusting the time frame in which schedules can be changed