A new electronic system for dropping, adding, and changing classes replaced a paper-based system this year. It was designed by the Assistant Principals of Guidance from each high school in CAPOUSD.

For many students this was a simpler way of changing around their schedules because they no longer needed to get a “green form” signed. To drop a class, all the student needed to do was log into their portal, click a button, and get their parents to click a different button giving their permission.

Students no longer needed their teacher’s consent in order to drop a class.

“In years prior, when I wanted to drop something, I was dissuade by having go set up a meeting with my counselor and wait in a really long line and filling out the green form, of course, because getting signatures from teachers was always uncomfortable,” said senior Lucy Collins.

Some teachers were concerned over the lack of communication in the new system, especially those that teach more advanced classes.

Katie Klingbeil, an Honors English II teacher, said she felt as if more students were dropping her class than in previous years.

For teachers, when students drop, “it is tough on both ends. It is tough for a teacher to lose a student because then it changes the class dynamic and even little things like the seating chart. But then it’s hard on the teachers who get new students maybe five or six weeks into the semester because then they have work to catch up and there’s things about the class to catch up on,” according to Klingbeil.

Of course, there are always legitimate reasons to drop a class and sometimes schedules need to be changed. The workload of a course may be too much or a student may not have the necessary knowledge to succeed.

Sophomore Melissa McElroy said, “It took me a while [to decide to drop] because I thought it was a class that I could handle but I realized towards the end that the amount of workload was too much for me.” McElroy ended up talking to her teacher because of a complication with the parent email address and said it did not dissuade her from dropping.

Maureen Scherf in the guidance department has a different perspective. “I don’t think more kids dropped. I think the missing piece is that, before, the form would go to the teacher and, once they signed, it was out of their vision, it was gone, it was here [in the guidance office]. But now, teachers have access because it is coming into them every single day.”

For her, the system was almost exactly the same, with the exception of the teacher recommendations.

“With anything new, there is always going to be glitches, so we know that,” she said. “I am thinking now the district sees [the glitches] and will probably change some of those things.”

The data on how many students actually dropped the class is being analyzed, but the numbers from last year are no longer available. For now, we will not be able to know how the class system really affected class sizes.

According to Amy Varricchio, the Assistant Principal of Guidance, “the Guidance staff does plan to continue with the online form.” Changes have been made, and there will be “more of an opportunity for the teachers to have the conversation with the students prior to meeting with the academic advisors.”