What is the next step post enrollment conferences

Story & Graphic by Abby Langle – Editor-in-Chief

Last week Lee’s Summit North hosted spring enrollment conferences. Spring enrollment conferences is when students and their parents meet with their mentor teacher to go over what they want in their schedule next year and to make sure they are on track for graduation. Once students attend their conference their enrollment process is complete and the next steps require the counselors.

   “After spring enrollment conferences, we take a look at the numbers of requests for each individual class and that then helps us decide how many sections of each class will be offered for the following school year. That process involves building administration, counseling, and the lead teachers in every department,” Rebecca Steele, guidance counselor, said.

   The next step for the counselors is to build the master schedule. They have to take many things into account and make sure that they can fill and fit every class. This is one of the counselors busiest times. 

   “The master schedule is a process and takes multiple steps, including scheduling Career Center courses, IB coursework, Special Education courses, etc. MANY things have to be considered as we build the master, including things like classroom or lab usage (not scheduling multiple classes into a computer lab at the same time), teacher availability (some of our teachers need a plan period a certain hour), teachers who teach in more than one building and the hours they will be at LSN, courses that remain the same hour year to year, and others. These are just a few examples,” Steele said.

   Building each individual student’s schedule does not take as long as the master schedule because they have help from PowerSchool.

   “The PowerSchool system fortunately builds student schedules, but when errors occur (for example – two classes a student requested are only offered the same hour), counselors must go in individually to fix those using a student’s alternate choices. Fixing one schedule can take anywhere from just a few seconds to 10 minutes, depending on how complicated the fix is going to be. If the master schedule is completed in early May (it typically takes about two to two and a half months to finalize the full master schedule), we’re able to call students in to have them help us fix issues such as these. We also try to double check students’ schedules to make sure something major isn’t missing (for example, a core class),” Steele said.

   The guidence counselors do their best to make sure students get every class they want in their schedule. There is a lot that counselors have to pay attention to during this time to make sure everything is ready and set for next school year.