Schedule changes aren’t new or special. But once again, it seems they weren’t anticipated. 

Before I begin, I will admit that working as a high school counselor at a large public school cannot be easy, and facing annoyed teenagers is overwhelming. But they knew this was coming, so why weren’t they prepared?

I, like every other student in this building, required a schedule change at the beginning of this year. My fix was small; I thought it would be easy. Sadly, I was wrong. 

It was Tuesday. I came early to get in line and make my fix before class. I stood in line for 15 minutes, got to the front, and was told that I had to fill out a form and come back at 1:15. So I left and filled out the form. At 12:30, I came to stand in line again. Mr. Bargeman was making his way down a long line of people, analyzing their forms to decide if they were ‘worthy’ of being seen. He took my form and walked away. 

I waited on the floor of the atrium, listening to students get yelled at for not following the rules of the ‘clear system’ that didn’t actually exist. After 30 minutes, I was told to go to class.

In third period I participated in multiple unmissable get-to-know-you activities. Reinvigorated by all of the educational importance I had witnessed, I set off once again.

The line was already longer than the first two times, but I was committed. My friend stood before Mr. Bargeman at the front of the line clutching her schedule change form. Her face fell as she was told she would not be helped. 

I was next. Mr. Bargeman asked for my form, the very form that you may remember he had taken from me hours before. I received a number and entered the auditorium, at which point all of my joy at finally making it through the doors died. 

By 3:00 pm, the senior counselors were on the second person of 106.

I stood in line three times, spending my whole day trying to fix my schedule all because our school clearly had no plan for how to complete schedule changes for the 2,300 kids in the building this year. They could’ve seen this coming. 

While waiting, I had ample time to come up with ideas on how this could all have been avoided.

Perhaps we could introduce a SignUpGenius. I suppose the amount of time needed to complete schedule changes varies, but the basic concept of giving students a place to sign up to talk to their counselor sounds amazing. In fact, we already do this. Counselors offer time slots for one-on-one meetings about graduation. Wouldn’t this system have worked great for schedule changes too?

Hopefully this year was a turning point. Schedule changes do not need to be this frustrating. •