Six classes cut; 104 students affected

Jennifer Eisenbeis, Writer

MONEYCUTS

After six sections of classes were cut, 104 students will begin following rearranged schedules beginning second semester.

“When I create a master schedule, I get to give five classes to each teacher,” Principal Mark Suchowski said. “During first semester, 18 extra sections had been assigned to different teachers, so I started looking at how many students showed up in each class. The number of students in these sections was going down, so we pushed the students into other classes to give teachers fewer classes.

“A section of Spanish 2, teamed Lit. and Comp 3 and teamed biology are being cut. A section of our online program, chemistry and physical science are also being cut as well.”

Even though these sections are being cut, students will still have the courses in their schedules.

“We sent a letter home explaining what was going to happen and their schedule, which will have changes in the hour or teacher they originally had,” Suchowski said. “They are still going to get their credit for the class.”

Some students received news of the cuts before the letters reached their homes.

“My 3A chemistry class is being cut,” junior Emily Hittle said. “I found out on Wednesday after my friend, who was also in that class, told me that she had been in the counseling office where they told her that the class was being cut and our schedules were being changed.”

Hittle had not heard anything about the cuts before her friend told her.

“I was very surprised to hear this,” Hittle’s said. “Our teacher hadn’t given us any indication that something was going on. I almost thought she was joking at first.”

As for schedule changes, Hittle’s switch affected only two of her classes.

“My 1B and 3A switched,” Hittle said. “So now I have chemistry 1B with Miller and Econ 3A with Lawrence, which I originally had with Gregory.”

According to Suchowski, these types of cuts have been made before.

“Cutting classes has happened before,” Suchowski said. “Though not recently; sometimes classes had to be cut five to seven weeks into the school year.”

Students will begin following their new schedules on Jan. 20.