This year, Gunn students were met with administrative announcements about schedule changes during their first few weeks of school. Although many students perceived more difficulty in changing their schedules, this year鈥檚 scheduling complications paralleled past years鈥�, according to data provided by the counseling department.
Since the 2020-21 school year, the counseling department has enforced a 鈥渘o email鈥� and 鈥渘o drop-in鈥� schedule-change policy for the first two weeks of school. They instead provide a Google form for students to specify which classes they wished to substitute others with, drop from or add to their schedules.
Last year the process was faster for me, and my request was basically identical this year.
— Junior Jonah Weinstein
Some students went several days without a response from the department, and various upperclassmen 鈥� such as junior Jonah Weinstein 鈥� were surprised by the difficulty in changing or dropping courses this year. 鈥淎lthough my request was an exception because it did not fall under the form-request reasons, I didn鈥檛 expect to wait a week to get a face-to-face meeting,鈥� Weinstein said. 鈥淟ast year the process was faster for me, and my request was basically identical this year.鈥�
Assistant Principal of Counseling Harvey Newland did not notice a major difference between this year鈥檚 scheduling complications and preceding years鈥�. Lead Counselor David Leftwich confirmed that the number of requests this year was not an outlier and that requests were denied or accepted based on the same parameters as past years. Thus, students鈥� perceived difficulty most likely depended on personal experiences and the number of requests they submitted or received.
One factor that did complicate schedule changes for a limited number of students was over-enrollment in Living Skills, a semester-long PAUSD graduation requirement. With administrative approval, the counseling department offered an online Living Skills course to some students, with each counselor selecting those they felt comfortable offering the course to based on their academic performance and demonstrated responsibility. 鈥淥nline learning is not for everyone, and counselors wanted to do everything we could to make sure that we were intentional about the students we enrolled online,鈥� Leftwich said.
However, the online classes began several weeks after the beginning of the school year, leaving affected students鈥� schedules in limbo. 鈥淚 had already been in my regular Living Skills class for nearly two weeks,鈥� senior Rohan Kancherla, who is now enrolled in the online class, said. 鈥淚 was called in by the counseling office and was given an option to stay on-campus or take the online version. The whole (switch) wasn鈥檛 really an inconvenience, but it did happen completely out of the blue.鈥�
While some students may have experienced longer wait times with changing their schedules, Leftwich noted that the current system is more efficient than the previous one. 鈥�(The old) process was cumbersome,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t involved students鈥� meeting with their counselors, obtaining a paper form, speaking to instructional leads. Now, (the system) is a straight shot because students don鈥檛 have to run all over the place.鈥�
Newland sees the number of schedule changes as a positive indication of student initiative in their academic lives. 鈥淚t鈥檚 always good that we have students who are reaching out and asking questions when they need it,鈥� he said. 鈥淎s administrators, we want to hear everything, and so having more responses and feedback is not necessarily a bad thing.鈥�
