On a cool, cloudy day, students sit in the rotunda with their counselors wondering what classes they are going to take next year. Some wonder if their class choices are too ambitious. Others are perfectly content.
Alexandria City High School is in the midst of academic advising, when students pick their classes for next year. Counselors begin the evaluation process of students’ class requests on April 9, but actual schedules will likely not be released until August.
This school year’s master schedule is notably different from previous ACHS schedules, mostly to accommodate for the new Minnie Howard campus of ACHS which opened in August. Now, students attend their fifth period classes every day, and it serves as an advisory period every Monday. Students also now have Titan Time, a 30-minute advisory period, from 8:35 to 9 each day. Additionally, there is now a 13-minute transition period so commuting students have time to travel between Minnie Howard and King Street campuses.
With the introduction of the new Minnie Howard building, many students were unable to arrive to class on time within the allotted 13-minutes. However, a Theogony analysis over eight weeks revealed that transition times are now down to roughly eight minutes on average. Another factor that the creators of the schedule must consider is the addition of the Academy Learning Model, as each counselor at ACHS is assigned to a specific academy to help assist students.
Since the 2021-2022 school year, there has been a schedule change every year, including additions of certain programs from Lunch and Learn, Advisory, and Titan Time.
Ashley Carter Sinclair, the campus principal of the King St. campus, said that he is hoping the schedule times won’t change next school year.
“We’re aiming to move away from yearly schedule changes without a clear impact on the instructional and programmatic needs of the school, [such as] academy implementation and resource allocation,” Carter Sinclair said.
ACHS offers a variety of classes that students can choose from. This can cause conflicts in students’ schedules because some classes can only be during certain periods and campuses. For example, AP Microeconomics only occurs during sixth period at the Minnie Howard campus, meaning students may have to sacrifice their other desired courses at that time.
With the addition of the new Minnie Howard campus, some students transition between both campuses every period every day to account for the classes they want to take.
The scheduling process can take a long time, as counselors have hundreds of students, each who have their preferred classes. However, individual selection is a quicker process.
“It took about 20 minutes,” said sophomore Mursal Lafiti. Junior Carlos Samuel Mejia Aleman said his scheduling took a mere “3 to 5 minutes.”
Another student had positive feedback: “The scheduling process went pretty well. I got the majority of all my classes that I wanted,” said junior Liam Fiore-Walker.
With the next school year rapidly approaching, the scheduling team at ACHS is currently drafting the schedule for the next school year. As of now, nothing has been made official.
The scheduling team, which is composed of administrators including Lead Operations Administrator Michael Burch, Executive Principal Alexander Duncan and Director of Counseling Brianna Hardaway, has several factors that it has to take into account throughout the drafting process.
“We have to follow state guidelines,” said Burch. He explained that ACHS receives 990 instructional hours a year, equating to 180 instructional days per year that they must account for.
The team must work around testing days, religious holidays and possible snow days when curating bell schedules to ensure students are having enough adequate time at school.
Academies at ACHS are dispersed between the King St. and Minnie Howard campuses — for example, STEM Academy is at Minnie Howard and General Studies is at King St. Each student is placed at a base campus based off of their academy.
The scheduling team is trying to find ways to decrease intercampus transition with the addition of the academies.
“We are looking at some aspects as far as cohorting kids, teaming kids, teaming the academy,” Burch said. But, he added “[Intercampus transportation] won’t completely go away, because you could be in the STEM academy and then still be in band,” which he said will likely be at different campuses.
There are many voices at ACPS that play a role in the scheduling process.
“It’s every department chair in the building, it’s also Central Office, it’s the counseling department; there’s other people like myself and the assistant principals; the deans are involved. This is a massive undertaking that starts April 9,” said Burch.
“Even Artificial Intelligence would have a headache trying to figure out our master schedule,” Burch said.
When asked what advice he would give to students knee-deep in the scheduling process, Carter Sinclair suggested that they “engage with counselors, teachers, and parents in the scheduling process.”
“Families are encouraged to be a part of the process per the advisement information shared by Ms. Hardaway,” he said.
While the scheduling process at ACHS can be tricky with 4,000 students to accommodate, the counseling department and administrators said they are doing their best to ensure that every student’s needs are met.
