Like many other students on the afternoon of Wednesday, January 25, I spent over two hours waiting in line to change my schedule. Along with my fellow scholars, I hurried through the hallways to the counseling office as soon as the last bell rang. Pushing, shoving teenagers rushed through the door, racing to get to the back of the room in order to make an appointment with their counselor. After several long minutes of bumping through the anxious horde of students, I finally made my way to the sign-up sheet. I found that if I was able to keep the pen away from the grabby, salivating crowd, I would be able to claim the 36th spot in line.
When I got home later that day, I was feeling irritated. I was upset that I wasted away the precious early release waiting two hours for a short meeting with my counselor. While chatting about it later, friends of mine agreed that the schedule change system was chaotic. At Edina High School, where the legacy continues and excellence is defined, shouldn’t there be a better way to manage these two days?
A few days ago I would have answered a conclusive yes, without a doubt. The $5 fee and long hours spent waiting seemed unnecessary. But after meeting with the counselors and discussing all things schedule change, I realized that here at EHS, we have it pretty good.
A main topic of conversation during the meeting was how lucky students are to even be able to change their schedule. I was reminded that in many schools there is none of this flexibility, and what you sign up for is what you get.
Here at Edina, counselors know that schedule changes are important, but sometimes the switch simply cannot be made. Class size is growing rapidly, and with a limited budget, sometimes rearranging schedules is not an option. The classes offered at Edina are determined by what students sign up for, so to avoid the schedule change rush, choose your classes carefully in February.
If a student makes a change in their schedule, they have to pay a $5 fee to the counseling office. This is used as a revenue generator, and was started originally as a way to raise money so that the counselors would not be cut. The fee now pays for college planning books, among other things is the only budget for the counseling office. Although it was originally $4 but was bumped up to $5, students at EHS are actually cut a deal as compared to other schools. One counselor used to teach at a school where the charge to change a schedule was $20.
As for handling the mad rush to the sign-up sheet? Counselors have already started a system and improved the situation by forcing students into an orderly line. This procedure was demonstrated on Thursday, January 26, and proved much more efficient than the mass rush on Wednesday.
Of course, counselors are always open to hearing new ideas on how to handle schedule change days. They have considered options like having separate schedule-change days for each grade or using forms to request a change in schedule. However, the former option was dropped because one specific, designated day might not work for certain students. The latter idea was shot down because of the lack of personal interaction with students. A form would not allow counselors to offer explanations or suggestions to students as they would be able to in person.
After meeting with the counselors, I reconsidered my original standpoint on whether schedule-change days could be improved. While I still think that there is definitely room for improvement, I can now appreciate the great effort put in by counselors and by the school. Although the line may be long and the wait hard, we should just be thankful that there is an opportunity to improve our schedules at all.
