This year more than ever, I, like a significant portion of the students here at RHS, find myself in classes jam-packed with students, sometimes more than available desks or computers. Most of these are electives, but class sizes are a serious concern due to the wave of schedule changes that affect students both directly and indirectly.

Principle Bills said this isn’t exactly normal, “I would say that’s rare.” Still, schedules are much more dynamic than past years, and Mr. Bills explained why, “At the end of spring we project an enrollment of a certain number, and this year we’re a few students short of that number.” Due to this marginal error in the enrollment estimate, the school is cutting several classes in order to get closer to the intended student-teacher ratio in each class.

According to Mr. Bills, the administration spent a great deal of time trying to determine how many classes to collapse into others, “Right now, we’re anticipating five classes.” After their careful deliberation, Mr. Bills assured me that class sizes weren’t being over-inflated, “We went through it in detail … we’re not overloading classes by doing this.”

One of the most affected classes is French Four Honors, which got collapsed into a French Three Honors class. In order to make room for those students, eleven students had to be moved out of their French Three Honors class, and some of the students have had the majority of their schedules shifted.

“Overall, I would say then, probably 28 kids were affected.” said Mrs. Arino, the teacher of the affected French classes. She spoke to us outside of her French Three/Four Honors class, which was divided down the middle of the room. The French Four students were facing one direction and the French Three Students facing the opposite direction.

Mrs. Arino seemed upset, or at least annoyed, by such a significant change just as school was starting. Still, she stayed positive, “It can be a positive or a negative, it just depends on how we approach it.”

One of the students affected by the changes is Nicole Dominguez. “I had French 3 honors first period and leadership PE third period, and they basically just switched places,” she said. Nicole was one of the students moved out of their French Three class in order to make room for the French Four class.

“At first I was kind of sad because those two classes were the only two that I have with my best friend Elizabeth” Nicole explained. But like Mrs. Arino, Nicole remained positive, “I think it will be a fine change.”

Soon, the dust will settle and everyone will continue on with their days at RHS, but hopefully this confusion will be reason enough for future class scheduling to be changed. Mr. Frank suggested the possibility of scheduling the class periods prior to class sign ups, which could eliminate a student being signed up for two classes in the same period.

Whatever the changes may be, hopefully the school or the district streamline the process, for the sake of students and staff alike.