The start of the school year has been tough for the majority of Logan. With counselors having trouble placing students in the right classes, students’ hectic schedule changes have resulted in being moved from class to class.
Colts have been having problems ever since August 7th with Aeries as counselors have been trying to reduce teachers from having too many students in their classes. Yet, they end up receiving more than what they can handle. Students are also being placed into classes they did not sign up for as well as receiving zero and eighth periods.
“One friend, she got the classes that she didn’t want, and then she had to go to her counselor every day for about a week, and her problem is still not resolved,” Harpreet Kaur, a 12th grade student, said.
Many students kept on bouncing from different classes in different buildings, making it harder for them to focus solely on studying and engaging in class. Though counselors are doing their best to have this covered, it is still a hassle to be in classes that one didn’t even ask to take. It’s no joke receiving a sudden change in your schedule to know that you’re suddenly going to take a class you have no interest in.
As overboard as it seems, despite students having to move from class to class, it’s also a big problem for the teacher who has to take care of more than what they’re told per class. “Have a daily student contact cap of 170 students,” is stated in the NHUSD Teacher Contract. Yet, a lot of teachers are still going over the limit.
“I am over the limit of 170 students so they’re trying to transfer some kids out of my class but they’re still transferring students into my class, which doesn’t make sense,” said U.S. History and Economics teacher, Mr. Rabi Nabizad. In addition, he had to request an extra desk from his neighboring teacher when not having enough for all his students.
“I had 2 kids transfer in the past week, and they are behind on lessons because their teacher wasn’t aligned with my teachings. So when quiz time comes, they were struggling a little bit.” Nabizad said. It is also concerning for those students who have to switch classes after being in one class for days. It makes it harder for them to catch up with their new class as well as being on point with lessons. The problem with scheduling affected students’ learning. Teachers would also struggle trying to keep all of their students on the same track as well as monitoring if they’re on Canvas.
Acknowledging our hard-working teachers would be a way for them to be relieved that we at least appreciate their efforts in making a class comfortable despite all of the in and outs. Our counselors also experience troubles because they are mainly the ones solving this major problem by being a bridge between students and their schedules. Their efforts at balancing happens every beginning of a school year; There continues to be a handful of students who need their schedules fixed early on. However, this year in particular, the schedule changes were occurring way more often, and there was more than just balancing behind it.
The counselors of James Logan had the last name groups that they were originally managing change, and the caseload of the students that they managed had altered with it.
“There was just a shift in counselors,” Ms. Garcia said, “a counselor went on a different assignment. So that’s why we had a shift.”
The combination of this counselor shift and the demand for schedule balancing created much chaos for the James Logan community. Most students had been checking the Aeries website, the student data platform, to double-check for any schedule defects, but Aeries added fuel to the fire with problems of its own.
“It populates at the beginning of the school year and puts you into classes based on where there’s space[…] Counselors came in to clean up the problem,” Ms. Sidhu, a former counselor at James Logan said. “This year, it happened a little bit more than expected, and a part of that was to deal with the counselor caseload shift.” So much has been changing for James Logan’s students finally begin to settle into the right classes.
“The vision for our school is basically, I just want to ensure that everybody has the opportunity to do whatever they want to do once they’re finished with high school,” Mr. Ron Polk, principal of James Logan, said. With the inconsistencies of Aeries, schedule balancing, and the counselor shift concerns finally coming to a close, both students and staff of James Logan can finally enjoy their school lives and carry out this vision.
