The infamous bright orange schedule change request form is a first week of school nightmare that Miramonte students, counselors, and teachers are all too familiar with. When summer comes to an end and students, teachers, and staff prepare for the school year ahead, students often face daunting schedule changes as soon as they receive their classes. To combat this hectic and unnecessary dilemma in future years, Miramonte’s administration must release schedules a week before school starts in order to get students into their proper classes by the first day. 

Generally, students receive their schedule on Mats Day, the day before school starts. According to Miramonte counselor Erika Vasquez, this method was originally put in place so that students wouldn’t try to switch out of their classes before school started and counselors could focus on other aspects of the back-to-school process. However, this strategy puts students at a disadvantage if they are placed in the wrong classes and need to switch into alternatives. On top of this, the process to actually transfer out of a class takes around a week, putting students behind in their replacement classes once they transfer in, and adding to the preexisting stress of school starting up again. “It is the third week of school and I am still going into the counselors office to change around my schedule. I was put into classes I never even signed up for, and I’m now behind in a lot of my classes,” senior Kate Swan said. 

If schedules were released a week before school started, the load of schedule request changes at the beginning of the school year would be lessened. Counselors would be able to work with the students whose schedules were incorrect before school started, allowing students and counselors to return to school without the stress of frantically changing schedules. Within the first few weeks of school, the counselors could help transfer students out of classes that they genuinely didn’t like or weren’t interested in. This would not only be easier on the administration but would also help students settle into their classes within the first week and not be behind.

This year, many students experienced extreme schedule mix-ups and had problems transferring into alternative classes. In a normal year, there are around  150 to 200 students who request a schedule change, which counselors and teachers have to accommodate. However, with the vast amount of schedule dilemmas this year, due to conflicts with the new administration, there was a scramble in the office. “I received around eighty emails a day within the first week from students trying to switch around their schedules, and I am only in charge of a quarter of the students at Miramonte,” Vasquez said. 

If students were able to receive their schedules in advance, there would be more time to correct them without placing as much pressure on counselors. “I think getting our schedules a week before school started would be a great idea. I personally had a lot of trouble trying to switch out of one of my classes and was super behind when I was finally placed in the right one, and this would definitely help solve the problem,” sophomore William Hoshimoto said. 

This simple fix could act as a more efficient approach to the prevalent scheduling problem. Not only would counselors be able to spread out their workload and more efficiently get students into the classes that they desire, but students wouldn’t be as stressed about the issues with their schedules. Fewer students would fall behind, and teachers wouldn’t have to focus their time on the students who transfer into their classes multiple days or weeks into the year. Overall, an earlier release of schedules would solve the problems that our school currently faces regarding the hectic environment of scheduling, and thus the administration should move up their schedule release date.