The “why” of this year’s scheduling changes.

Each year, as the fleeting days of summer come to an end and hundreds of buzzing students begin to fill the halls, whispers and shouts of the newly distributed schedules echo throughout the school. The counselors are bombarded with students begging for a change or an accommodation in their schedule, but this year things are different.

Students can no longer change their schedule or switch classes. Their only possibility for change, dropping the class entirely. Overcome with questions as to why the counselors chose to do this, I sat down with Janice Dempsey and Gina Malecha, two of our school counselors and discussed the decision for change.

Here is what I learned:

Claire Tetro: How long have both of you been counselors here at the school?

Mrs. Dempsey: Nine years.

Mrs. Malecha: 16 years.

C: In your years as a counselor here has there ever been this drastic of a change to the scheduling process or registration?

D: It’s more the “when,” is what changed this year, it’s when it transpired.

C: At what point was the decision made to make the changes to the system?

M: We have been evaluating this for the last three or four years as we’ve gotten larger. Mrs. Ramsey and I, and her assistant visited Fairview early last year to evaluate different methods.We began investigating other schools processes for doing this a full year before. It’s been a very long and thoughtful process, it was not a rash decision.

C: What influenced the decision?

M: It was really based on inequity for kids. There were classes of 42 and classes of 18, and it was the same class. It was really based in equity for kids and keeping class balance appropriate between sizes.

D: … and making sure all kids have, in that equity issue, access to quality education.

M: The other part too is just the unnecessary changes that were being asked. We would probably change over 50% of the senior’s schedule, so really there was no point in having you guys pre-select your courses if half the students were trying to change their courses, and they weren’t based on academic reasons. For a long time we were able to accommodate that, but when we had 400 kids in a class, there’s no way to accommodate 400 people’s requests, and then it became again, an equity issue.

C: After the registration process and the release of schedules, how do you feel the change has went? Did it go as expected, or were there unexpected difficulties?

D: I think one of the things we were very excited about is by having seniors select an off period, it truly helped us in scheduling the master schedule and where to put classes, and that in and of itself helped balance those classes out so they’re not so big and little.

M: I think change is difficult, I mean we have a population that’s very used to getting their own way, so we anticipated it would be horrible, we anticipated it would be ugly and it really wasn’t any uglier that it normally is. Teachers were very pleased that there wasn’t movement in their classes. They could actually get started with the material right away, where before they would maybe wait a good week. The other thing that it’s helped with is level changes with stuff. If kids are really in the wrong place it’s not just a matter of them not knowing what to do, there’s now a process for it, it’s evaluated by the entire counseling administrative staff. There was a lot of stuff behind the scenes you guys were not aware of. All of your classes that you picked in February, your teachers previewed and approved all of those academic classes before you guys even got your course request made. That’s never happened before. There was a lot of work behind the scenes.

C: How do you think the have students reacted to this new change? How have their responses influenced the new system? Do their responses have a positive or negative impact on the system changes?

D: So far, I think the majority of students have been okay with the change because they got what they asked for. They knew what they were getting in May which I think really, really helped. It took away some of that anxiety for the start of the school year, and I think that was a big positive.

M: I honestly think the students have handled it better than some of the parents, quite frankly. Some of the parents were much more frustrated. There’s a handful of people used to getting, again, what they want, and so for them not to have that same access, I think it’s frustrating for them. This was never about the teachers, this was always about students and providing equity and access to all kids in all classes. Having a structure for something I think is helpful. For the most part, the kids were actually pretty good about it once they understood the why.

D: … and I think they actually supported that.

M: I think so too, I think the kids get it.

D: I do believe it’s created more positive energy around being in class and doing what you need to be doing. The manipulation of schedules is gone, and that seems to help everybody and gets kids settled quicker. It really, it is a good thing.

C: What is the hardest part about the new scheduling system? How do you think these difficulties can be overcome in the upcoming school years?

M: I think the biggest challenge, and I wouldn’t say difficulty, but the biggest challenge was just communicating the new way of doing things to everybody. I mean, we had to communicate it so many different places, so many different times, because until people have gone through it, they don’t understand it. I think that we did a pretty good job with getting the news out. That it was going to look different. I think that was our biggest hurdle, was just communication.

D: But I think it created that, by knowing it was going to be different, more thoughtful conversations and I think that’s a win-win for everybody.

M: Now that everyone has been through it, I think students will be more mindful choosing what they’re going to take, because they know they are really going to be held accountable to do the work, to step up, and it’s not an easy switch if you change your mind. So I think through the first year, it’s always the most difficult with any change. It’s just going to become routine.

C: So next year you think it’s going to be easier, students will be adapting?

M: Absolutely, I mean we did sort of base this roughly off of Fairview’s model. We adapted it for us, and they said the first year was horrible, so we were bracing for horrible.

D: And I don’t think we got horrible.

M: Second year, they said they had a little bit of trouble and by third year no one even questioned it, so that’s kind of what we’re anticipating.

D: And I think the other thing we did well this year was try to let students know which teachers  would be teaching classes, and that had always been kept a secret, for no reason.

M: Which I don’t understand why.

D: So definitely some positives.

C: Has this change been frustrating?

M: Not for me, I embraced the change, just because it was needed, overdue. Maybe the parents that didn’t understand were frustrated.

C: Why do you think the parents were frustrated?

D: So I think that’s the area we need to do better communication, is with the parents. We did very well with the students.

M: Whenever you change stuff, it can be frustrating for people who don’t understand the reason behind the change. I never felt frustrated with it. In fact, I felt kind of invigorated that we could do something different and have it be successful. I think that data is powerful, and numbers are important and we finally have that information, so I’ve never really been frustrated with it.

D: I think it’s been very successful as far as making what people perceive as a big change. I think it’s come of very very well. And of course there’s little things we can tweak in it, which we will be, you know, but nothing major. It feels good because we’re serving kids in a way that’s very positive.

C: What do you think those tweaks would be? Do you know yet, or are you still in the process?

D: So as I said, probably improve communication with the parents a little bit more, as to timing and what goes on at each of the different intervals of time for scheduling.

M: I think most of the changes would be internal, you guys wouldn’t even be aware of. I mean a lot of it you weren’t even aware of in the front end, it’s more procedural stuff for us. So probably just keeping on top of communication.

C: That’s all I have for you guys, but is there anything you feel like you need to mention or anything you want to re elaborate or anything I didn’t touch on?

D: No, I think just thank the students for taking this change in stride.

M: Yeah, and we appreciate their patience because we know change is hard. I think the students did very well with it honestly, but you guys are a pretty adaptable group.

D: It helps a lot, so definitely thank them for us.

After a long, and insightful interview with Mrs. Dempsey and Mrs. Malecha, I have come to appreciate the new changes to the scheduling system. Although at first I questioned the process, now I understand that this was in no way a rash decision, but a well-thought-out and rational development. And it may seem crazy, but the counselors did this for us, and I don’t think we can thank them enough for all of their efforts.