Transition Time

A long time ago a mentor of mine told me that running a school was "like changing a tire with the car still moving". Since I first heard that comment, I've often felt there was a lot of truth to it. However, I'm not naive enough to think the same couldn't be said for many businesses and organizations.

Anyway, here we are at the midpoint of the school year already. At the same time students are prepping for exams, they are also looking ahead to select classes for next school year. Today is a dichotomy of sorts. The hallways are unusually quiet because we have 90-minute periods to allow for a comprehensive exam, yet at the same time the counselors are scurrying to make sure everything is ready for the scheduling process.

Building a master schedule for a comprehensive high school is like putting together a large, complex puzzle. There will be over 11,000 courses requested by our students that we then divide into about 400 individual sections. And quite a few of those courses will be offered only once per day, i.e. Symphonic Orchestra, Pointe Singers, and AP Physics.

We will do our very best to make sure that these so-called "singleton" courses are not placed in the same class period if there are students that want both offerings. However, no matter how hard we try, there are always a few conflicts that are unavoidable.

So during this transition time, I ask for two things; 1) Assist your students with exam preparation as much as possible without placing undue pressure, and 2) Help them choose their courses for next year very carefully. Once the master schedule is assembled and staff are assigned, there is little wiggle room for schedule changes.

I wish you well with both endeavors.