High School Students Facing Class Schedule Nightmare
July 27th, 2010 by Mike VasilindaStudents return to schools across Florida over the next three weeks, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, many of them, especially high schoolers, will have a hard time getting the classes they want because of class size requirements.
Page Twyman is fielding half a dozen calls or more each day from parents wanting to register their kids for the fall, and that’s becoming an administrator’s nightmare.
Sarah Shajawy is volunteering at her Tallahassee high school this summer. Because no class this fall can have more than 25 students, she and thousands like her across the state are not going to be getting all of the classes they want.
“I might not get to take guitar because they have to cut some of the elective programs and that’s not really great,” Shajawy said. “Kids don’t get to take what they want to take or AP classes that could get you into college.”
Principal Rocky Hanna has spent the summer trying to juggle teacher schedules to help students like Sarah, without much luck.
“When I wake up at 4:30 in the morning in the summer, worrying about class size, and which teacher, no that teacher can’t do this, I might have to move my cooking teacher to teach a science class,” Hanna said.
Every penny that school’s have is going for class size this year. For teachers that means fewer supplies and for students that means fewer textbooks.
Until this year, high schools only had to meet a school-wide class size average of 25 students per teacher. But now no single class can have more than 25. But that’s alright with Maria Morales, even if her freshman son doesn’t get every class he wants.
“Keeping them small, keeping them manageable,” Morales said.
But with smaller classes, Sarah and thousands of other students will be in classes they don’t like simply because there’s room.
Lawmakers are hoping voters will change class size requirements in November, but a vote is far from certain because of legal challenges.
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