A line of almost a hundred people stretches from the door to the counseling office down the hallway. Teachers cross students off their roster who had switched out of their classes. By the second week of school, most students have switched out of their original classes and are just starting to get settled. This scene is a normality for the first week of school, when students see who is in their class or what the class is really about. Usually, they would join the growing throng of students waiting for a walk-in appointment with their counselors, but not anymore. This year, a deadline for most schedule changes was set for August 5. Any other schedule changes are no longer available Aug.19.

“We needed the culture to change, so the first week of school… kids can start learning,”  counselor Nicole Dosland said.

Counselors have been at work since July 18 changing schedules and adding new families to the South community. On July 29, students’ schedules were available on Skyward. On Aug. 1 and 2 , the fee payment days, students received a paper copy of their schedules for the coming school year. Students seemed to have plenty of time to email their counselors by Aug. 5 and request schedule changes – but problems have still arisen.

Students who wanted to switch out of electives after the first day of school were turned down by their counselors. Only legitimate issues were addressed.

Sophomore Stephen Luancing had no fourth or fifth hour going into the first day of school. He made an appointment with the counselor to change it even though others had trouble switching out of their classes.

“Anything that requires effort, I switched out,”  Luancing said.

Luancing also ended up in two social studies classes – AP European History and AP Microeconomics.

Every year, there are schedule horror stories – but this year, the deadline has helped the teachers get started on teaching and the students get started on learning.