LHS Schedule Needs Refined
BY Kirah Weikel — Staff Writer
LHS has an abundance of electives students have the opportunity to take during period three. Creative writing, mass communications, the music program, Cedar Leaders, and independent studies are only a handful of options. Period three, which exists from 10:06–12:31, is the chance for students to take classes tailored to their interests. But is it the most productive schedule?
Students are given a multitude of options when choosing electives to take, but it’s the question of whether they’re given enough time to take them. Such electives are packed into one period, period three, leaving little time for students to earn credits for classes they are choosing to take. This leaves them with less opportunities to broaden their academic horizons. High school is about finding what interests you most, so you can discover what path to take when you graduate, but with limited time students aren’t reaching their full potential.
LHS assistant principle, Mr. Nordall, agrees that an ideal schedule would allow for more flexibility, explaining, “It would be nice to have a schedule meeting the needs of the students, regarding if they’re in extra curriculars, have siblings, or are working. The obstacle to that would be students committing to the schedule for the full year so the schedule can be planned out. Staff would also have to be willing to do the schedule.”
Savannah Hershey, a sophomore, shared her thoughts about what frustrates her about the current schedule. She said, “I don’t have enough time to go to all of my classes during period 3, so I have to rotate through them every other day. That stresses me out because I have lots of work to do and little time to do it.”
Students are required to take specific courses and earn a particular number of credits in the core subjects. Freshmen especially, are required to take various numbers of English and math despite their academic level. This time could be used for them to take electives of their choice. This lessens their ability to take classes that further their education in a specific field, like music or photoshop.
Mr. Nordall also stated that an ideal schedule would promote more freedom among students. According to him, he “would love to see a senior college schedule, similar to what college looks like. The obstacle to that would be where students go when they’re not in class, as college has a lot of free time. Another obstacle would be staffing.”
Seminar has also been brought up as a struggle between students. For students who are less involved, seminar is a time where they can catch up on work and complete Naviance. For students who are more involved and don’t have the opportunity to take a seminar class, it’s more of a challenge to get Naviance completed. Naviance is given to every student despite some not having the time to complete it in school. Most kids who are involved don’t have time after school either, leaving them with limited time to complete their assignments.
We interviewed Mr. McGrory, the band director at LHS, asking him about the problems the current schedule faces. He added, “The problem is that there’s a lot of classes offered during period three. It creates schedules challenges, but it’s worth it because students can do more than one thing.”
With such a copious amount of classes and a small time frame, the struggle of students choosing and completing electives has become clear. In the future, we’d like to see changes in the schedule that directly benefit students — a schedule that benefits higher achieving students, granting them the opportunity to take more electives.
