As the second semester starts, schedule change policies have been strictly implemented by the counseling department. A schedule change is dropping one class to take a different one of the same level, while a level change is a shift in course difficulty. There are eight criteria that are provided in the school’s curriculum guide for a schedule change. Students must meet at least one of the criteria to be able to get approved.

“The policy has always been in existence,” said guidance department chair Lori Mitchell. “It’s always been there, but Central might have had a liberal interpretation of it.”

Adhering more closely criteria is being done due to the rampant requests for schedule changes, which caused the imbalance of the number of sections of the classes, the volume of the class and teachers’ jobs.

Once classes are selected by students, “We can then determine how many teachers we need to run those sections. If students change their selections after all the staffing has been done, that can cause problems as classes run too low or not at all. It’s not fiscally responsible for the district to run a class that’s too small. It’s also unfair to teachers who end up having very large classes,” Mitchell said.

Not only that, but fine arts teacher Jeff Fujiu points out that “it’s kind of tough when I want to get started on day one, and then I’ll have the [student] additions throughout the week… [For example,] we have our first day on Monday, and [then] have a new student on Thursday. Now, we have to get caught up those past four days.”

Understanding the staffing processes would make the students more precise and accountable for their choices.

Mitchell emphasizes that during course selections, students should “think about what would make you happy, what would benefit you so it’s not important what your friends are taking. Just think about what you like and what might help you in your future. It doesn’t matter whatever anyone else is doing. It’s okay to think about yourself, but in this, once you pick it, commit to it, and just try to enjoy it … and get something out of it.”