“Why so early?” “Already?”  “I barely know this year’s classes!”  These are just a few of the many reactions one could hear in Mt. Vernon classrooms as finals’ week yipped at the calendar’s heels.  

However, finals were not the only culprit in sparking the wave of grumbles and confusion.  Many Mt. Vernon high school students were surprised by the promptness of class selection processes for the 2017-2018 school year beginning as early as December and concluding in January of 2017.  

Although understandably puzzling at first glance, this haste makes plenty of sense.  If anything students should be thankful that the counselors and staff prioritize student class preferences so highly.  I like Mt. Vernon’s particular scheduling procedure because it allows for a plethora of options and possibly a simpler manner of completing required courses even as an underclassmen.  

Gathering the majority of students’ class requests allows the counseling staff to most efficiently arrange teacher scheduling and rearrange and rearrange again and just once more and then final draft.  Scratch that, in the last week of summer vacation the dedicated staff will still be doing their tedious job of rearranging to accommodate for latecomers, students on the fence, and transfers from other schools.  

This job is not easy and will likely continue into the school year as students, being the teenagers that they are, decide they would rather drop the class than miss out on a friend’s favorite class or that teacher that everybody loves.  

Teenagers, no need for guilt; indecisiveness is in the job description.  Regardless, Mt. Vernon High School is blessed to have such committed faculty looking out to provide the student body with a wide array of both class and scheduling options.