New registration plans have been set to allow six days for classes to be picked to benefit the efficiency of the process, and allow for the district to get numbers faster for next year. Counselors gave some lessons before Thanksgiving break to encourage students to think about the classes they will pick by Jan. 12.
“All the decisions that are made about enrollment and advisement and the timing come from the district office and it sort of works backward,” counselor Lorraine Smith said. “They want to be able to hire the best teachers and the best staff they can, and they want to do that as early as they can.”
The district plans on trying to hire teachers in March, right before they get out of college, so they can have a better pool of candidates. This can only happen if they have registration numbers early, so they can see what kind of staff they need.
“I feel like sometimes this stuff is more complex than people see it,” Smith said.
Once students register for classes, they will talk to their counselor to finalize choices and make sure the classes they want will be beneficial to them.
“It’s conversations with kids,” Smith said. “You know, we look at the pre-AP classes and Honors classes versus regular. When we are talking about level, that’s a lot of teacher recommendations. How have you done in your previous classes? Like, if a kid signed up for Honors Geometry and I look at their transcript and they got a C in Algebra, that’s probably not a good fit and we’re gonna talk about that.”
This advisement is supposed to happen for every student after registration closes during the months of January and February. But some teachers worry about the shorter registration window affecting less popular classes with only one hour. This year, Printmaking is only offered during fifth hour, and art teacher Kim Skwira has put an incredible amount of work into keeping the class alive.
“We made flyers and put them up around the building, and I just needed a few more kids in order for the class to make it,” Skwira said. “So, I recruited the last few kids from my painting class.”
Counselors rarely push classes toward students because they worry they will seem biased, but the teachers who fight to keep the classes on the roster may argue that these classes should get better promotion throughout the year.
“Kids don’t know about it,” Skwira said. “With us being in the basement no one ever comes down here in the new building. We’re not on the main floor. People don’t walk past us, so we don’t get much foot traffic. Printmaking is one of those classes that I think once kids know about, it’s fun and want to make it. But, it’s not feasible to make a class of 30.”
