This fall, several students are taking courses at Brookfield East High School. Having this option available to students is extremely beneficial and a great decision on behalf of the administration. The advantage of this choice is that it helps accommodate students’ schedules. In the past, extracurricular activities, limited class sizes, and special circumstances have limited options for the classes students can take. School no longer exists only between the 7:55 and 3:09 bells. Now, students have countless extracurricular activities, many of which meet in the morning prior to the start of school.
The primary class that students found to interfere with their extracurricular activities was the Youth Options course, Zero-Hour Calculus III. Before this year, the only time the college course Calculus III class was offered through Brookfield Central was at 7 a.m. That time frame posed an issue for many students who had clubs that met in the morning, especially for those who were on the executive boards for clubs. Calculus III is now offered at Brookfield East from 8:10 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. This allows students enough of a buffer to arrive on time for the beginning of class at East and also return to Central before the start of second block.
When asked about her opinion on having Calculus III at East, Lauren Chiang (’15) said, “I think it is the perfect option for Calc III students. We only have a 50 minute class period, so it makes the ten minute commute back to Brookfield Central very doable.”
In addition, one student is taking a different math class at Brookfield East due to a special scheduling circumstance. This is just another example of how off-campus options provide students the flexibility to resolve schedule conflicts.
The advantages of offering high school and college courses at Brookfield East for Central students can be most clearly demonstrated through the success and enthusiasm of students in Calculus III. This benefit should be duly noted and mimicked in the future.