Each year, the difficult process of creating a school schedule begins with students requesting courses in February. At Brookfield Central, the students determine what classes and how many classes will be offered for the following school year. This process is extremely important, so Lancer Links are dedicated to scheduling. In Lancer Links, students have scheduled meetings with their counselors as well as time to put their requests in the academic planner. The number of course requests determines which classes will run and how many sections each class will run.

The academic planner opens on the first school day and closes in early February. Students can start editing their planners and meet with counselors whenever they want to talk about their course selections. However, most of the scheduling takes place in January and February. During this time, students decide on their final classes for the upcoming school year.

If a class has a high number of requests, the school tries to accommodate all the requests by making additional sections. Some examples of these in-demand classes are: Introduction to Business, Drawing 1, Auto Service Fundamentals, Wood Design and Production, and a plethora of AP classes. On the contrary, if a class has very few students who signed up, the class gets canceled because it is not beneficial to the students for collaboration purposes. Some of these classes are: Project Lead the Way courses, Engineering courses, AP European History and Senior Literature Studies.

When students want to switch classes at the start of the school year, it is incredibly hard to suit everyone’s needs because when the schedules are made, they are based on the original requests of the students, which is why when a student wants a schedule change, they are not always fulfilled. The scheduling process is an important part that students, counselors, and administrators need to plan carefully. It is extremely important to make sure that your final schedule is exactly what you want.

The scheduling process is a very collaborative process that involves the students, counselors, and administrators. It takes a lot of time to plan to make sure every student has a schedule that they enjoy.