By the third week of school teachers are starting to get their student names memorized, students are becoming accustomed to their classes, and it’s the halfway point in the first grading period. But for this year’s junior class, students are experiencing more than the normal third week.

“Once we started getting schedule changes, we had several students leaving AP US history and AP English,” guidance counselor Amanda Breeden said.  “When we started school the Pre-AP classes were not full and had plenty of room, but when we had so many students leaving the AP they had to go in the Pre-AP and then all the Pre-AP History’s and English’s hit 29-30 and that’s just not a good situation for teachers or students.”

This clearly posed a problem for many members of the junior class. The students were aware of their class sizes but it wasn’t until recently that the decision was made to dissolve some classes and create other ones.

“We talked with principals and we just thought the best case was to close the AP classes that were getting so small and open up more PreAp so that it’s better for the students and teachers,” Breeden said.

This didn’t sit well with some students.

“I think it’s so unfair that we have to take the fall just because other students wanted to drop AP Lang,” junior Alex Leslie said.

Once the decision was made to close some classes while opening new ones, students were called into Breeden’s office so the counselors could put into effect as many new schedules as they could for the following Monday.

“I had to change my math teacher in order to stay in AP,” junior Katie Brucher said. “It was a struggle because I now have a new math and English teacher.”

Ultimately it was a change that the administrators had to make.

“It’s not good necessarily for the people that have to switch their schedules,” Breeden said.  “But as far as the overall scenario it’s just best for everybody.”

Have there been any scheduling problems with your AP classes this year?

• Yes, my whole schedule had to be changed because so many students dropped out.
• No, but I hear there have been some difficulties.
• I haven't heard of any problems.
• I'm not in any AP classes.

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