Student schedule changes will begin Friday, Sept.  16 because of an unexpected increase in enrollment.

Teachers reported their classes being either too big or too small within the first week of school. Mr. Lucas Henry’s fourth period AP Economics class was moved to the lecture hall.

“Right after school started, we had more students in some classes then we had planned on,” math coordinator Julie Frizzell said. “Our math and social studies departments were the ones affected the most.”

With class sizes still not fixed, central office informed the staff that they had enough students to hire two more core teachers to balance Algebra II, world geography, world history and US history classes according to counselor Jeff Cranmore.

“We will be adding an Algebra II teacher and a social studies teacher,” Frizzell said. “Students in all grades will be affected.”

Some students already received schedule changes during the second and third week of school in a first attempt to manage the class sizes. If a class schedule change affects a student, he/she will receive a hard copy of their new schedule during class the day before it takes effect.

“At the end of my second week, I got a schedule change that flipped my third and fourth period,” junior Isabella Orozco said. “I went straight to the counselor ‘s office and explained what had happened, but they said I absolutely had to follow the change.”

The staff expects that students will be unhappy about having their schedule changed four weeks into the school year.

“All we can do is encourage students to be patient and flexible,” Frizzell said. “We have some great new teachers.”

Students who already received schedule changes three weeks ago are concerned that it will happen to them again.

“If my schedule changes again, I would get so frustrated,” Orozco said. “The school should already have these problems resolved before the school year even begins.”

by Catherine Festa

photos by Amanda Adkins