A zero period Government/Economics class was offered last year for seniors making their schedule for the 2018-2019 school year, which was then cancelled less than a month later causing major issues with students’ schedules. This change caused a lot of confusion and anger from students and teachers. Justin Nunn, a Government/Economics and AVID teacher, was willing to teach these students at the peak of the morning, every day. If it was eagerly wanted, why was it cancelled?

Nunn, who was a big force in trying to make this class possible, was asked why he wanted to start this class. “Students have to make a choice at some point about whether or not they should continue in a program because they need PE, so I tried getting a zero period PE class. I’ve tried getting ANY zero period class,” said Nunn.

Michelle Pereira, a THS math teacher said, “Many are impacted” in regards to this schedule change. The process to getting this class approved is a long one, but when you have students in need of this class, to take other classes for more learning experience and school involvement, and teachers fully willing to teach zero period classes then the decision should not be that hard to make.

The zero period opportunity, with emphasis on core classes, allows students to take more electives or meet more requirements for the program they are in. As of right now, there is a committee trying to get the added zero periods approved by the district.

Even though there is a continuous push for new zero periods, the process goes two steps forward and three steps back. The class was on the charts for this year’s classes, yet it got cancelled. Senior, Nolan Willis, was one of the students affected by this schedule change. Willis said “There were a lot of classes I wanted to take on my free time,that I couldn’t necessarily do with the classes needed to graduate. I was not able to take Weight Training and they also cancelled another class that I wanted, so all of my elective classes went right out the door.” No matter the reason why students were trying to take zero period Gov/Econ, the quick change in the decision to make this class was one that would change the course of students senior year.

Making the zero period classes an option is still in the approval process. They could have approached the approval and cancelling of the class differently. Willis said, “They made us think we would be able to take this class, but then a week later they were like ‘Oh nevermind.’ They should have clarified that the class was not for sure.”

In regards to making this zero period come to life, Nunn said, “The fact of the matter is that we are the last school in the area to not have a significant zero or seventh period class offered. We can easily look at what other schools are doing to combat this (the issue of deciding to take a class that is a necessity halfway through the school year).”

There was a lack of communication that the class was not set in stone, and the class should have been guaranteed to run  before it was even offered.