Alexandria City High School released student schedules on August 14, one week before the first day of school. Many of the schedules had glaring errors, igniting discourse among students and parents as to what exactly could have caused the debacle. Students of all grade levels can now take classes at any ACHS campus as part of Alexandria City Public Schools’ “The High School Project,” which makes the schedule creation much more difficult, though few students were expecting such a substandard release.
“They had me down for two math classes and no English class,” said junior Nicole Carranceja.
Carranceja’s experience seems to reflect a larger reality. A voluntary survey by Theogony, that did not account for statistical sampling bias, received 70 responses. More than 80 percent of students reported some sort of issue with their schedule.
“I was not able to fit AP French into my schedule because so many classes were full that nothing could switch around,” said junior Khamille Muhammad. “But I ended up choosing an alternative elective that I’m still happy with.”
Another student shares a similar experience.
“I ended up having to [be a teachers’ assistant] because of absolutely no class options,” said a student who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Seven out of 10 students reported that at least one reason for their dissatisfaction was that they were unable to get into specific classes they wanted. Rosalyn Hardaway, Director of High School Counseling at ACHS, provided a response.
“When you have students that take five to seven AP classes, it’s very hard to get them everything they want,” said Hardaway. “Course requests are just that. They are requests, not guarantees.”
According to Hardaway, students have had conflicts in their schedules every school year. With a student body of more than 4,500, not every student is able to get placed into each course they applied for, she says.
Other students are satisfied with their schedules this year.
“I think my schedule is well balanced and I have numerous classes with friends,” said freshman Daniella Ellis. “I was able to get into all of the classes I wanted to this year.”
In fact, Hardaway said that 91% of students had complete schedules by the time they went live, though Theogony has not been able to independently confirm this claim.
“To be the person who was doing a lot of work regarding the master schedule¹, I feel good about where we landed,” said Hardaway.
However, Ellis expressed discontent with being placed in classes at different campuses.
“Transportation between campuses causes a lot of confusion,” said Ellis. “They need to provide more buses because some students arrive very late and teachers tend to only start teaching and it affects their learning.”
These transportation woes have been echoed by many other students.
“I have to take the bus back and forth everyday and I’m always late to class,” said Carranceja. “The buses are always packed and sometimes there isn’t enough room for everyone.”
Like previous years, the program PowerScheduler was used to create the ACHS master schedule. But the new Minnie Howard Campus has brought changes to how schedules are organized and created.
“The master schedule [this year] was built for one school as opposed to looking like it’s two different schools,” said Hardaway.
Due to the Minnie Howard campus now encompassing all grades instead of just freshmen, the structure of schedules has been fundamentally shifted. Many classes, such as Cosmetology, Nursing, Sustainability, and Anatomy and Physiology, are only able to be available at one campus.
“There’s teachers at Minnie Howard who came to teach at King Street and vice versa, depending on the needs of the campus and the courses that needed to be taught,” said Hardaway.
The new system of two campuses each with grades nine through 12 is unique to ACHS and a big change for students, staff and administrators.
“This is the first time ever in the city of Alexandria where this has happened,” said Hardaway. “And the leadership here was not here for this vision, we were left with the implementation stages.”
“Right now, there’s a lot of growing pains,” said social studies teacher Shannon Campos-Dowdy. “There’s just way more information that has to be communicated, and it’s not always clear yet.”
There are a multitude of factors that go into play, such as last minute hiring of staff and summer school grades. These can all impact scheduling days before schedules go live in mid-August.
Additionally, the implementation of a new academy system has also affected scheduling. Planning for a new academy model for ACHS has been in the works since 2019. This year, six academies, each with their own pathways, have been implemented into the High School.
“A lot of work went into breaking down our core classes as much as possible within our academies,” said Hardaway.
For example, students in the Business and Government academy would be placed with other Business and Government students for all of their core classes.
“It’s not perfect for everyone, especially as we needed to just fit students into classes,” said Hardaway. “But that was our overarching premise.”
When attempting to fix scheduling conflicts, seven out of 10 students responded that their schedule was fixed.
“I emailed my counselor as soon as I got my schedule, I got a response a few days later, and once school started back up I was able to sit with my counselor and sort it out,” said Muhammad. “My schedule is not what I fully expected it to be, but I really did get all the classes I wanted so I’m satisfied with it.”
Student schedules are often adjusted throughout the first weeks of the school year. The interviews and poll indicate frustrations with scheduling, but there has been no increase in empty schedules according to Hardaway. Compared to last year, she reported a 2% increase in the amount of full schedules. Still, the shuttling back and forth between campuses caused by the schedules seems to be a main complaint of students unsatisfied with their schedules.
“Having to go back and forth constantly and getting to school on the bus in the morning/afternoon has me on the bus four or five times a day,” said a student in response to an anonymous Theogony survey. “Being constantly late to class due to the buses is cutting into my learning time and will eventually add up.”
“It’s a shift, I would say,” said Hardaway. “What looked like issues for many students, I think it’s adjusting to understanding the new schedule.”
- A school’s master schedule is the plan that outlines the structure of a school day and the academic year. This covers various different areas of planning, such as the schedules of teachers, students, and staff.
This article is part three in our series, “Inside the High School Project,” which covers the controversial ACPS initiative that the district says intends to connect students across the four ACHS campuses. However, the initiative has received significant pushback from students, teachers and parents. Read part one of our series here, part two here, part four here, part five here, part six here, and a bonus part, which was published in the Alexandria Times over the summer, here. Theogony will continue our coverage through at least the end of the 2024-25 school year.
