This year marks the first academic year in which students received lockers, schedules and ID cards on Jump Start Day, a preparation day before the beginning of the school year. The Aragon Parent Teacher Student Organization (PTSO) organized two such days: one for underclassmen on Aug. 7 and another for upperclassmen on Aug. 8. Students assumed that, by seeing a course displayed on their locater card, they could expect to have a spot the class. However, many soon learned that this was not the case.
Before the start of the school year, teachers experienced large changes in the master schedule. The administration was forced to cut six classes because the district issued six less classes than expected. “We were hoping to get some additional sections, but we didn’t, so we had to kind of pair down and raise some numbers in some sections,” Assistant Principal Jim Coe says.
As a result, classes such as AP Calculus AB and health were impacted with 37 and 40 students per class, respectively, while others such as AP U.S. Government were under-enrolled, with under 27 students in each class.
The administration has since brought all class sizes down in order to meet the San Mateo Union High School District Teachers Association’s (SMUHSDTA) requirement, which says all classes other than physical education and music may enroll no more than 35 students. Counselors advised some CP U.S. Government students to switch to AP in order to fill the under-enrolled classes. In addition, the administration added health sections in order to alleviate impacted classes in that subject.
At beginning of the year, there was discussion in AP Calculus AB to remove the students who received the lowest scores on the first quiz, which would be based on review material. However, plans for this have since been cancelled, as students dropped the course voluntarily. Calculus teacher Cheri Dartnell says, “I haven’t had to bump anybody out against their wishes—they’ve done it on their own.”
Dartnell is worried that her larger class sizes may prove problematic for the learning experience. “It definitely is harder. I can’t tell yet. Last year I had really small classes, and I ended up with a really high pass rate, so it will be interesting to see if I can maintain that pass rate with this many students,” says Dartnell. “[During] work time in the classroom, it’s hard to keep everybody on task.”
CP U.S. Government and Economics teacher Frederick Chancellor, whose classes are mostly filled to maximum capacity, agrees that a larger amount of students restricts the classroom experience, but he doesn’t think the changes have been large enough to make a noticeable difference. Chancellor says, “It stretches you thinner in terms of working with the individual student, but to really make a big difference, they’d have to reduce the contract down to, say, ‘we are going to teach five classes and have 120 students.’”
As of Aug. 3, Aragon met SMUHSDTA’s class size requirements of 35 students per class, except for music and P.E. However, some teachers, like Dartnell, signed a waiver with the union allowing them to take a 36th student. While class sizes are currently under control, many are looking to the roots of the scheduling problems to figure out what changes can be made.
According to Coe, inter-district transfers and students moving in are some of the factors that contribute to impacted classes. “Each year, the district allots us [a certain] amount of sections,” says Coe. “What we don’t know is the number of people who are moving into the district, into our area, and will be coming to us … Sometimes, we find out that there is more of a creep in student increase than we had originally thought, so that leads us to some classes that are impacted.”
In addition to inter-district transfers and new students, courses are impacted due to more students doubling in science and math—a decision that, while may be beneficial to the student, takes up extra class spots. “We had a number of students who wanted to take a double science and a double math,” says Coe. “What happened was, the district held very tight on any extra sections, so some of those upper division math and science courses tend to be impacted.”
The ability for students to take whichever classes they meet the prerequisite for–-and thus take multiple science or math classes—is part of a policy called open enrollment. Counselor Steve Allekotte says, “[Open enrollment] means pretty much anybody can take any class…We try to counsel them to the classes that are appropriate.”
Many attribute these scheduling issues to this district-wide policy. “There weren’t any restrictions, so it’s partly our fault,” says Coe while explaining the issues with double science and math courses.
Open enrollment has allowed for more students to take on a seventh period class, resulting in a larger amount of students taking seven classes than originally accounted for—another explanation for overfilled classes. The assistant principals of the San Mateo Union High School District will hold a meeting to discuss different solutions. “What I’m in the process of doing in addressing that at our Assistant Principal Council [meeting] is to bring up the topic of what we call the seventh period day allotment,” explained Coe. “Six or seven years ago, [it] was expected that 25 or 30 percent of students would take seventh periods—now we’re way over that. Probably 50 to 60 percent of our students take seventh periods. So that allotment needs to be adjusted upwards at each school, not just here.”
Adjusting for the increase in students taking a seventh period could occur in two different ways: either the district could add more classes to account for increased demand or restrict students from taking certain electives. Coe says, “If the district doesn’t want to [add more sections], then [they would] tell us that you can have no more than 40 percent of your student body in seventh periods. There is no double science, no double math, and freshmen and sophomores probably will be the ones who won’t have as many elective choices.”
The meeting is scheduled for Sept. 10; however, a decision is not expected until later in the year.
