Over the past few weeks students and counselors have been working to complete online scheduling for the next school year while following the guidelines of the pandemic.
In previous years, counselors have met with students during their classes to help answer any questions they had; this year they were unable to do so.
“The counseling department did everything virtually including instructional videos on the process,” counselor Jennifer Shonebarger said. “Links on our website as well as numerous emails to students and families.”
One struggle in the process of scheduling this year was with students who are attending the online academy.
Counselor Sarah Stevenson said that she wasn’t able to touch base with all her students based on where they are in their path towards graduation.
“We have a number of students in the online academy, so that was a big difference,” Stevenson said. “However, many students have scheduled virtual meetings with their counselors, and we also spent a lot of time in the cafeterias meeting with students.”
With the major changes to the schedule this year including longer periods and fewer classes, students are not sure what changes to expect for next year.
“I expect next year’s schedule to be similar to the normal schedule before Covid, just with safety precautions added in like masks and the one-way hallways,” freshman Jackson Gaulard said.
Even though the schedule for this year was different, Stevenson said they plan to offer the same courses normally offered during the scheduling process.
Whether or not students will actually be assigned to these classes depends on a few different factors.
“Once we have an opportunity to review all the requests a determination will be made about which courses will actually be scheduled,” Stevenson said.
Although there are questions about what next year will look like, the struggle of this year has been getting students to put in their scheduling requests.
“Even after morning announcements and numerous emails along with extending the deadline, we had approximately 350 students who did not submit any requests,” Shonebarger said.
Counselors are currently contacting students to try to figure out what classes they would like to take next year since it is now locked for students to submit requests into PowerSchool.
This year has brought different experiences for all members of the Hayes community and there are a multitude of different expectations for next year.
“I definitely hope we can return to a full week schedule with everyone in school so we can be with more friends that might be in the opposite group as us,” Gaulard said.