“I would have been annoyed with myself if I was Ms. Sekera with the amount of times I went to go visit her,” said Max Quinn (’24), after substantially editing his senior year schedule during the first ten days of the school year. He dropped five classes and added three during this time, ranging from Intro to Adobe to AP Physics.
When selecting courses during the end of the previous school year, students are largely allowed freedom, rising juniors and seniors even more so. Although during the start of the new term, there is significant commotion surrounding switching classes. With this newfound academic freedom, students can find a benefit in being able to create an ideal situation for their school year.
Oyster River High School (ORHS) follows a policy during the start of each school year where students have five full days of attendance in each class period to add classes to their schedule, as well as five weeks to drop a class without penalty on their transcript. During the current blue/white day schedule, the time to add classes stretches over the first ten days of school.
While it’s important for students to be able to take time to attend and get a feel for a class, the length of this adding period can cause its own set of problems. During this window, students miss anywhere from 80 to 400 minutes of class time, stretched over 3 weeks.
“For at least the first three days of school, there were lines out the counseling door, and I think the impact of that is good, to allow students to attend the class, see the syllabus, hear from the teacher what they’re going to be learning, get a sense of the pace and expectations of the course,” Shannon Caron, head of counseling, said.
Sometimes, attending the class isn’t even necessary to know these changes should be made. “I tried to drop it over the summer, but the meetings never lined up because of their time at school. So, on the first day, I got it done,” Erinn Doherty (’25) said.
It isn’t always as simple as going to the counselor on the first day of school and immediately getting switched. Ainsley Beaupre (’25) found that more communication with her counselor was important and made a meeting or sent an email almost daily to check availability in certain classes.
“The classes I really wanted to take had some senior priority, and so I didn’t get into any of them. So, I despised my schedule,” Beaupre said. This is one of the more common reasons for switching classes, especially when elective seats are hard to come by after registration has closed. These limited availability classes fill the seats first with older students, who have been waiting longer for access to the spot. Someone in Beaupre’s position may have to wait for the opportunity to open up if another student drops the class in the fall.
Electives, which are mostly selected based on personal preference, are common for students to want to change after being able to test out the classroom environment. “In some classes, I just didn’t feel like I would be enjoying my time in there.” Quinn said.
Heather Machanoff, a counselor, noticed a common issue that contributes to changes in elective scheduling. “When we are creating the schedule, we say ‘ok, they couldn’t get into art, but they said they’d be interested in basic wood’ so we put it in and students inevitably come down and say ‘I never signed up for basic wood.’ You did, but had it as a backup,’” Machanoff said.
When completing course registration during the previous year, some students put more thought in than others, especially surrounding their backup courses. Counselors try to stress this during their class presentations and individual student meetings, but they’ve always had to make readjustments the following year.
Art teacher Maria Rosi recognizes that this may not be the case for those with more specific paths they want to follow. She said, “I think in some instances, students signed up for the electives they knew would be a good fit. When a student decides to take an art course, if it’s not what they need to g r a d u a t e … not many kids leave that course. Nobody has left my Drawing and Painting Two course, nobody has left Advanced Studio Art.”
In classes that fall outside of the elective model, like a math class or a lab science, there may be fewer fluctuations, but more of an effect on the student’s learning experience when there is a readjustment. ORHS teachers strive to make sure every student feels comfortable in their classes as soon as possible. Math teacher Erica Cooke said, “When they come in at the end of the drop period, they’re two weeks into the class. So, we try to get them caught up, and meet with them during flex, and even go to math lab.”
In certain instances, the desire to switch one class may cause more readjustment than the student anticipated. Counselors often have to act as though they’re solving logic puzzles to balance out a student’s need for their schedule. They might be placed into other sections of a class, during a different time or with a different teacher.
“Multiple classes change… so there’s a delay also in some of that just getting into a routine by having that add window. But again, it also helps practice flexibility, adaptability, and self-advocacy,” Caron said. She thinks students can grow all of these skills by figuring out how to create balanced schedules that work for personal needs or preferences.
All teachers have individual ideas surrounding the fluctuation of their classes, but there’s also adjustments they need to make during this period. “It holds me back a little bit from taking out complicated supplies or getting into major things,” Rosi said.
Advanced placement classes (APs) are another type that comes up in conversation about scheduling readjustments. For students who have never taken one, the immediate introduction to a more intense courseload may seem a little too overwhelming. AP Physics teacher Jim Thibault said, “I think some students signed up for it thinking that, this might be good, I’ll give it a try, and some of them decide, ok, I’ll stick with this. And then some would say, well, this is even more difficult than I was anticipating, and choose to drop.”
Counselors and teachers alike are devoted to helping students, to create the most enjoyable, while productive, year. Even though the counseling offices are flooded during the first window of school, they’ll still make it a priority to make sure each student feels their needs are being met.
Your counselor is there to support you. Their priority is to ensure that your schedule can best support you too.
– Amilia Rury
Mouth of the River 
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