After courses for the next school year are requested, students are left wondering what happens next and what their schedules will look like. Normally, there would be various announcements and meetings with counselors and administration to finalize schedules but due to the school closure, the focus has been on creating the matrix first. 

“Right now, the teachers are letting Mr. Chambers know what courses their dept will offer for next year.  These decisions are based on what the students selected for their pre-registration,” said high school counselor Susan Leadholm. 

It doesn’t end there: course registration is a complicated process. Schedule-building takes a lot of effort on the counselors’ and administration’s part. 

“Once the classes are decided upon, the secretaries have the responsibility to build the number of sections that will be offered per class.  Next, the counselors have to decide when each class will be offered within a day. When the class schedule is finished, the computer will schedule the students into their classes starting with seniors, then juniors, sophomores, and then freshman,” said Leadholm.  

Due to school closures because of coronavirus, counselors have to work even harder to get schedules completed. 

“Mrs. Leadholm, Mr. Chambers and I have had to bust out our creative sides to communicate about all the different pieces involved in putting together the schedule. There have been many video meetings and LOTS of emails,” said high school counselor Libby Secard. 

Many students are anxious to see their schedules and they wonder if these closures will delay when schedules are finalized. 

“We’ve had to adjust our initial timeline slightly, but in this unprecedented time in education, flexibility is the name of the game! Our goal is to have the matrix finished and ready to go by 

May 1 which would then give everyone a little over a month to piece everything together,” said Secard. 

Counselors are hoping everyone will return to school in May, making it easier to finalize schedules and make any needed changes. 

“If we do not come back, we will need to send out email messages with students to check their schedule online, and then the counselors will need to work with the students over email to make the changes.  I personally do not want to think about that, as it will really be challenging,” said Leadholm. 

For now, counselors are keeping their hopes up that we will return to school soon to prevent the frustration of creating schedules online.