After signing up for Film Literature at the beginning of the school year, senior Katelyn Brooks thought that her final year at SHS was going to be a smooth one. However, at the end of the first semester, Brooks was caught off guard after her schedule was changed without her consent.

Brooks went from taking Film Literature as her English class with one study hall to two english classes which consisted of Film Literature and Blended English 12.

“They took away my study hall and gave me two English classes,” Brooks said. “I don’t need two English classes.”

Since second semester has started, some SHS students have complained about their schedules being changed without their permission and according to guidance, the changes are being made purely to balance the classes and increase the student’s chances at being successful in class.

“If they fail Spanish, or French or German, we don’t have an easier Spanish, or French or German (class),” SHS counselor Briana Underwood said. “They would be added to an elective that we would have open.”

With that being said, some students have gotten their schedules changed for other reasons that don’t involve academics or balancing issues. According to Brooks, she had straight A’s in her classes and the only reason her schedule got changed was due to a simple miscommunication between her and her counselor.

Another student who got their schedule changed for other reasons, junior Jasmine Carr, has been a theatre student for three years and after first semester, has found herself in a first-year theatre class. Originally in Barbara Whitlock’s theater class, Carr was put in Sara Berghoff’s class which is a class for first year theater students only. According to Carr, her counselor put her into a different class because the computer which automatically schedules students registered Carr as a first-year theatre student.

Whether students get their schedules changed over miscommunication, an error in the computer, to balance out the classes so one class isn’t overpopulated or just for pure academic reasons, guidance has stated that they will not change schedules at the request of the student.