Despite recent discussions regarding a possible schedule change for the upcoming school year, students and teachers no longer need to panic. The WS/FCS school board chose to delay the vote leaving the schedule the same for all schools. The district sent a survey to all the students, teachers and parents in Forsyth County on Dec. 2 to gather a percentage of those who preferred either the traditional or block schedule. Those results determined that the block schedule was favored with a 53.87 percent overall vote. The survey allowed for comments to be submitted, and more respondents answered that they wanted to keep the current schedule. However, some students and teachers wanted to change.
“I would have preferred the seven period day because it seems like it’s the better option for teachers and students, but for me personally, I tend to get bored in the last 30 minutes of class,” junior Daniel Bryant said.
Not only are students and teachers concerned about attention spans but also retaining information.
“I have found as a teacher that students retain information better on a seven period day, and while it may feel longer it’ll be less like learning from a fire hose and instead you’ll be drinking from a water fountain everyday,” social studies teacher Debra Troxell said.
Although the schedule will not change, more flexibility will be allowed for individual schools who would like to switch up the way counselors schedule certain classes. This will relieve the workload for guidance counselors who would have had another difficult summer scheduling classes for students.
“It allows me to breathe a little easier because for next year if we make changes we’ll be better prepared,” guidance counselor Angela Hubbard said.
Counselors use mostly a paper/pencil pre-planning system when it comes to course requests. They refer to old student schedules to build a general idea of how they should place students in classes. Sometimes students do not always get what they need or may want, which is why a new software program called CARDONEX is being implemented. CARDONEX  was designed to not only reduce the burden on counselors but also help students and teachers. It is expected to give students the classes that they need, but also give teachers a balanced number of students in each class and reduce the amount of days counselors have to take out of their summer to make schedule corrections.
“Most of the work is usually on the shoulders of the director of counseling and that’s a huge commitment that I can now put aside and really have time to meet with the students,” Hubbard said.
Choosing classes will be similar to last year and school counselors will be meeting with students through math classes to discuss graduation plans or select courses for the 2023-24 school year. The registration portal will be open from Feb. 8-17.