Coming to school the first day and not liking your schedule is very frustrating and even stressful.

This year, Daniel Pearl Magnet High School switched to a six-period schedule to accommodate new credit changes. The current ninth, 10th and 11th graders only need 210 credits to graduate, while the 12th graders still need 230.

“The schedule change is a good thing because the students are taking the courses needed,” counselor Martina Torres said.

Some students think otherwise.

“Sophomores don’t have electives,” sophomore Ethan Coffee said. “I like music and I am not able to take a music class this year.”

There are students, like me, who want to take an elective class every semester because they want one special, fun class to look forward to every day.

Being a committed student athlete, I had to make some sacrifices this semester. Due to the limited class options, I had to either give up my Advanced Placement World History class or my Spanish 2 class.

My goal was to finish my language credits this summer so that in 11th and 12th grade I could take an elective. But as of now, that isn’t possible. In order to stay on the tennis and swim teams, I decided to drop my Spanish 2 class.

By having only six classes, I feel that the students are limited to the classes that they are encouraged to take. If a student starts their language requirement in 10th grade, there isn’t an opportunity for them to participate in classes like newspaper and yearbook, and these are the classes that DPMHS encourages us to take.

Unfortunately for the students who don’t like the schedule change, Torres says that going back to a seven-period schedule will most likely never happen.

“Our freshmen that had seven periods were really exhausted and so were our teachers. They had to prep for more classes,” Torres said.