[CCHS] next year's schedules

[Art Dulong]

Hello to all,

	I just wanted to take this opportunity to let you know how things stand
with respect to next year's schedules. Some of you are aware that I had
some difficulty in getting the master schedule to reflect all that we
needed it to be in order to run our programs. There were several reasons
including me working with a new program, us having to schedule more
students than we actually have staffing or space to serve, and too many
students over-requesting courses. The programming issue is one that is
resolved. Most of the issue was my need to thoroughly understand the
peculiarities of the program. The staff and space issue is ongoing. We are
staffed with an expectation of 1262 students. Through much of the
scheduling season we were working with 1285 students to schedule. As of
this morning we are at 1275 with about a half dozen more we know are
coming. The difference between 1275 and 1262 seems small, but it
represents either another section of a discipline or increased class size
in a discipline as you spread the students over 6 classes. The students
over-requesting is something we have to work with, possibly by redesigning
our course request form. That's for another year.

	The real reason I'm sending this is to let you know that as I clean up
the schedule for September implementation there will surely be some
changes from what students received in early to mid-June, not many, but
definitely some. Why? Lots of reasons. One reason is that department
chairs have shifted some teacher assignments and classrooms for a variety
of reasons. If a class had a teacher assigned to it in early June, there
is a chance that teacher has changed. Another reason students will see
schedule changes is that department chairs have declared that some classes
are overloaded. Most of the time that means shifting a student schedule to
get them in another section of the same class. Rarely does it mean a
student is directed to a different class, but that also could happen. (You
would know about that.) Another reason is that if students move from the
district we delete their schedule and this opens up spots for those on
waiting lists changing the schedule for that student. One other reason a
student might notice changes is that we had to shift several 9th grade and
11th grade Health and Fitness classes because they conflicted with science
labs or they just were not filling for some other reason. Any shift like
this affects the students who did schedule into them. I've probably bored
you to tears thus far. If you've read this far the bottom line is - we
will be sending home schedules in their (sort of) final form mid to late
August. For some students these schedules will not look exactly like what
they saw in June.

	Also be aware that students whose schedule requires SSERC, Math tutoring,
or special needs help vary in the amount of time they need. It is not
uncommon for me to either over place them or under place them into their
help sessions. That is an issue that is very easy to fix and is done
immediately upon notice. Just let us know if that is an issue.

	Enjoy your summer.

Arthur Dulong
Principal, CCHS
(978) 341-2490 x7110