BHS held class scheduling for the 2021-2022 school year on Monday Feb. 22. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the usual arena scheduling was not used. Instead, students picked up their registration sheets as they walked into the gym and signed up for classes on their own.

“I liked when we did arena scheduling because then if your teacher thought that class would be too hard or too easy for you they would help you out with that. Or, if they thought you should take a class they would help you with that, but we did not get to do that this year,” junior Maddy Rilling said.

While the lack of arena scheduling was disappointing for some, other students liked the change.

“I did like that we don’t have to do arena scheduling because that is just so many people in one space, and it gets overwhelming,” junior Mateja Clark said.

Although arena scheduling was not done this year, students assembled in the gym and teachers gave short presentations on what classes they could take.

“I feel like they did not really go over the classes that much. We have the book that has all the descriptions in it, but mostly they just told us what the prerequisites for each of them, and what classes there were, but not really the descriptions of the classes,” Rilling said.

The more free form class scheduling also lead to fewer students handing in sign up sheets by the due date.

“With arena scheduling we get a much better turnout because they are there and they cannot leave the gym until they turn their sheets in,” Guidance Counselor Ann Ragus said.

Some students also had to change their scheduling plans because of the switch from trimesters to semesters.

“It kind of changed some things because there were classes that I would have wanted to take if they were one credit in trimesters where they would just be ⅔ of the year,” Clark said. “If they got switched to year-round classes I did not want to take them anymore, because that cuts out different classes since it is all year.” 

A few classes had to be changed in minor ways because of the switch from trimester to semester.

“Really not a whole lot has changed, other than a few classes that were year-long like Honors Chem that will have to adjust,” science teacher Ben Sanderfoot said.

The change to semesters may be a big change to some, but for Sanderfoot, the new schedule has not changed much yet.

“I think that (changes to classes) are going to be one of those ‘to be determined,’ but in the skeleton of the course everything is going to stay the same, and the more minor tweaks and minor revisions will come as we go,” Sanderfoot said.

While not a lot has changed on the classes side of things, many changes had to be made to the scheduling materials themselves.

“Anything that we hand out or talk to kids about had to be changed, the presentation to the eighth graders had to be revamped, all sorts of stuff, our handbook had to change, you name it,” Ragus said.

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