After taking Introduction to Music Theory, senior Vahan Harabetian was disappointed to learn South would not offer an Advanced Placement Music Theory course his junior year due to lack of enrollment. Unfortunately, students not getting their first pick of classes is common, Rebecca Holst, Assistant Principal of Student Services, said.

Course registration starts in November for incoming freshmen, and lasts all the way until late January. Students select their preferred classes as early as eight months in advance so Holst, Principal Dr. Barbara Georges, Dr. Joyce Kim, Associate Principal of Teaching and Learning, and Aracely Canchola, Associate Principal of Student Support, can work out constraints, Holst said.

Last minute changes are incredibly difficult to accommodate, unless for a guideline noted in the student handbook, School Counselor Travis Myers said.

“Counselors aren’t making decisions or trying to do marketing for different classes,” Myers said. “We are having conversations about what the best fit is for each student based on their interests, their future plans, and on what they want, and then making sure we get them registered.”

Students may not get a preferred class due to the class already being full, the class did not run, or the class conflicted with another class in the student’s schedule, Myers said. Classes generally need at least 17 students to run, and if that number is not reached, they are either held in the same room at the same time with the next course in sequence of that class, or the class is cut. This tends to be more of an issue with electives, as graduation requirements should always have interest to run, Myers said.

Another issue is space constraints. This is a common occurence in “labs,” such as some Career and Technical Education (CTE) or science courses, Holst said.

“Sometimes you have more kids that want the course than space allows,” Holst said.

As students begin to enter more advanced classes, known as “Capstone Courses”, the highest level of a course offered, student  course registration meetings with their counselors become increasingly important, Holst said. Courses are more prone to conflicts when there are fewer sections, Holst said.

“At capstone courses, there’s not many sections of them, so sometimes decisions have to be made by the student,” Holst said.

Managing the needs of thousands of schedules takes great attention to detail and time, which is why South has a full-time scheduler,  Charmaine Rasavong, Georges said. Holst and Rasavong review each specialized course request individually, and it is rare for them to be approved.

“I appreciate that requesting schedule changes is a point of frustration for students,” Georges said. “We have to make wise choices in the classes that we request.”

the available budget for the next school year, Georges said. They start with minimum requirements, and then move on to specialty programs or courses with lower classes with any left over funds, Georges said.

Managing the needs of thousands of schedules takes great attention to detail and time, which is why South has a full-time scheduler,  Charmaine Rasavong, Georges said. While algorithms in PowerSchool do the real grunt work of sorting each student into a class, Holst and Rasavong review each specialized course request individually, and it is very rare for them to be approved, Georges said. While not getting a top choice may be a frustration for students, it is a reality of large schools everywhere, even at the collegiate level, Georges said.

“I appreciate that requesting schedule changes is a point of frustration for students,” Georges said. “It is in every high school everywhere. We have to make wise choices in the classes that we request as you have to at the collegiate level as well.”

have to be made by the student,” Holst said. “We try very hard to reach out to the student. Not every student is responsive  but sometimes those are really hard decisions, and it’s just the way the placement happens.”

Any time an overflow in graduation requirements happens, new courses are staffed based on the available budget for the next school year, Georges said. They start with minimum requirements, and then move on to specialty programs or courses with lower classes with any left over funds, Georges said.

Managing the needs of thousands of schedules takes great attention to detail and time, which is why South has a full-time scheduler,  Charmaine Rasavong, whose whole job is to crunch the numbers, Georges said. While algorithms in PowerSchool do the real grunt work of sorting each student into a class, Holst and Rasavong review each specialized course request individually, and it is very rare for them to be approved, Georges said. While not getting a top choice may be a frustration for students, it is a reality of large schools everywhere, even at the collegiate level, Georges said.

“I appreciate that requesting schedule changes is a point of frustration for students,” Georges said. “It is in every high school everywhere. We have to make wise choices in the classes that we request as you have to at the collegiate level as well. Sometimes we don’t always get what we want and we have to make hard decisions.”