Students, staff adapt to schedule changes

Tania Lopez and Linus Bossardt • October 25, 2024

Junior Aischelle Baun finishes her Spanish 2 Edgenuity assignments in her period 6 video production class on Oct. 16. Due to former Spanish teacher Glenda Hurtado’s displacement, students who were taking Spanish were moved onto Edgenuity due to schedule changes.

When sophomore Mateo Zazueta saw the update guidance school counselor Martina Torres put out on Schoology on Sept. 26, he was disappointed to see his new classes.

“I got switched out of one of the classes I was really excited to take,” Zazueta said. “It was APUSH (AP United States History) and it was a tragedy that I can’t go back because it doesn’t work out that way.”

Several classes were rearranged to account for the changes caused by Norm Day. The changes happened during the seventh week of school, causing students to catch up on their new subjects before the 10-week grading period. Torres announced on Schoology that students would receive a new schedule on Sept. 27.

The Spanish department was terminated due to the displacement of Spanish teacher Glenda Hurtado, causing Torres to close all of Hurtado’s classes. Students had to be moved to other periods such as Portuguese and video production once Spanish courses became part of Edgenuity. U.S. history teacher Brenda Helfing and music teacher Wes Hambright each cover a period 2 and 5 Edgenuity class respectively.

“The Portuguese class became much larger, so he (Gonçalo Sousa) has a much larger class,” Torres said. “My goal is to always make sure that I don’t go over the maximum capacity of 32 students per class.”

Without Hurtado’s Spanish classes, Sousa has former Spanish students who were placed into his period six Portuguese class. Honors English 10, taught by English teacher Valerie Quiroga, has been made available to students engaged in sports who were previously unable to take it due to the periods overlapping.

“I’ve been switched out of Spanish to Portuguese,” junior Orian Yanklevich said. “It’s a lot bigger now and Mr. Sousa now goes back to teaching new things to the old students and old things to the new students because the class combines both Portuguese 1 and 2.”

Other students have been switched out of their electives. Senior Lilli Miscione was previously in Hambright’s guitar class, which was absorbed into his advanced band class. She was also swapped out of Portuguese and placed into Leadership.

“I was really disappointed that I couldn’t continue learning guitar and Portuguese simultaneously,” Miscione said. “I had to give up guitar in order to switch back which took a lot of effort. I’m still very annoyed as I don’t want to be in Leadership and would much rather be taking guitar.”

About the Contributors

Tania Lopez, Staff Writer

Tania Lopez is a sophomore and a staff writer for The Pearl Post. This is her first year on staff and she is excited to see what the future has in store. Outside of The Pearl Post, she serves as the sophomore class Treasurer and a member of Los Angeles Unified School District’s Gifted and Talented Education’s Student Advisory Council. Her goal for this year is to take as many opportunities as she can to improve her writing skills.

Linus Bossardt, Staff Writer

Linus Bossardt is a sophomore and first-year staff writer and photographer. He hopes to rise in the ranks and refine his skills in the upcoming years. He plays guitar and piano and enjoys composing music in his free time as well as studying Japanese. He loves taking pictures of landscapes and capturing magical moments with his camera.