When Uzuki Kakinuma arrived at AP Language/Composition class the first week of school, she was forced into a chair with no desk in the back of the room. The class, meant to have at most 26 students, contained over 35.

“In Lang, I just don’t have a desk to sit in and take notes,” Kakinuma said. “It’s really difficult.”

It would seem that Kakinuma’s deskless first period was the rule, not the exception. She had two more classes with the exact same issue: AP Physics 1 and Spanish 3.

“Spanish has 45 students, Physics has 30 to 40 students,” Kakinuma said. “It makes learning harder in AP Physics 1. I can’t see the board. Our teacher is loud, but I am sure teaching is still hard for him.”

By the third week of school, all of Kakinuma’s overcrowded classes had been “leveled” to a reasonable class size.

The overcrowded classes were not the result of overpopulation at Grady, but rather the unfortunate consequence of a complicated scheduling process in which administrators attempt to reconcile graduation requirements and student course preference while maintaining reasonable class sizes.

In order to balance these numbers, administrators must change student’s schedules individually or change the master schedule, which outlines which period each class is taught.

“Leveling is a necessity for the operation of the school as a whole,” said Carrie MacBrien, Journalism and Communications Academy leader.

Andrew Nichols, a teacher and gifted coordinator, said Grady’s commitment to diverse course offerings leads to scheduling constraints. Many classes catering to specific student interests, called singletons, are only offered during one period, forcing groups of students participating in those specific classes into other periods for their core classes. This creates some class periods that are overcrowded and others with too few students.

Although administrators attempt to give students their preferred classes, they cannot exceed class size maximums. On-level core classes are limited to 35 students. AP classes must have no more than 26 students to receive funding from the state, said Willie Vincent, Business and Entrepreneurship Academy leader.

The multitude of scheduling constraints can lead to confusion and students who are displeased with their schedules.

When Alexander Cameli received his schedule, he lacked a literature class and was enrolled in Essentials of Legal Services, a pathway elective unrelated to his academy.

He was unable to fix these issues until the second week of school because the rest of the counselor’s time was consumed filling holes in other students schedules.

“It’s ridiculous that people had holes at the beginning of school,” Cameli said.

Even when Cameli was switched into his desired classes, leveling had not occurred to those periods and more instructional time was lost.

“We had to spend more time on [calling] role and such,” Cameli said. “This took class time away.”

AP U.S. History teacher, Roderick Pope said that these caps are essential for a productive class.

“The problem becomes trying to get those kids under control,” Pope said.

MacBrien said in the beginning of the school year, the leveling process consumes large amounts of school administrator’s time. Students with easily swapped periods are identified in a case-by-case analysis of overcrowded classes. The student with the schedule least disrupted by the change is selected to be switched from the class. If there are no students with easily resolvable schedules, an elective change may be necessitated.

“Ultimately, an elective is just an elective,” MacBrien said.

Although leveling is most often used to address overcrowded classes, it can also result from staffing changes. When a teacher leaves, or a new teacher comes to Grady towards the beginning of the school year, the master schedule must change to account for new or eliminated courses. Adding or removing a single course can require many changes to the schedules of students originally enrolled in the class, MacBrien said.

“As professionals, we make it work,” Nichols said. “We trust the administrators will level out the classes to make them easier.”

Administrative changes impaired the routine process, Pope said. Susie Mercer, who handled multiple scheduling tasks, left Grady for a position at Wesley International Academy. This created additional strains on administrators and the scheduling process.

“Ms. Mercer left, there’s a void left, that wasn’t there last year,” Pope said. “There are new hands on the schedule this year.”

Nichols said Mercer had worked very hard behind the scenes to minimize the impact of scheduling issues on students. But there are changes besides Mercer’s absence.

“There were challenges this summer in regards to who was available to schedule,” Nichols said. “Cassandra Bolding changed jobs this summer. Shaketha Blankenship has been out [on maternity leave], and we’ve been feeling her absence. Little things add up.”

Administrative changes can slow the process, leading to more errors because of the haste involved with completing leveling and scheduling on deadline, Nichols said.

MacBrien, however, is confident that each administrator can compensate for Mercer’s absence to keep the process running smoothly.

“It’s just part of working with the school,” MacBrien said.