Freshmen Course Selection Presentation

EMS ISD Arena Scheduling/Personalized Course Selection Timeline

Schedule Changes

Many classes and lunches are full. You are requesting a change to a course, not periods; your change should be based on your graduation plan and plans for your future.  Unfortunately, we are not able to let you know what is available specific periods because it will change as requests are made.  Make sure you look at your schedule in Skyward before making a change request.  Changes have been made since you Arena window.  Go to your student access, schedule, click on display options, and select next year.  Please remember that this may not be your final schedule since schedules may be adjusted due to class leveling and/or classes that still may move, close, or open.

More information and dates can be found on the EMS ISD Personalized Course Selection Website.

Release Period and Office Assistant

If you are wanting release periods or to be an office assistant, you need to complete a form prior to any schedule change will be made.

• 2021 seniors who are eligible for a release period must also complete a separate form.  Please download and fill out the form and email it to your counselor.  Click here for the 2021-2022 Application for Release Periods form.
• 2021 juniors and seniors who are eligible to be an office or library assistant must also complete a separate form.  Please download and fill out the form and email it to Mrs. Ludlow (bludlow@ems-isd.net).  Click here for the 2021-2022 Office Assistant Application form.

Please note: These applications must be downloaded/saved to your computer (desktop seems to work best), fill in the information, save the form again, then email it.

In order to help you understand the reasoning behind the steps of Personalized Course Selection/Arena Scheduling, please read the following explanatory information.

As you know, Personalized Course Selection is a multi-step process with different windows of time.

1. Planning: Students select courses and develop a 4-year high school plan with the help of counselors and other school advisors. This starts in 8th grade and goes through fall semester of 9th grade.
2. Course Requests: Students review and submit their course requests for the following school year. This starts in fall and goes through early February each year.
3. Schedule Requests: Students submit their request for their preferred schedule. This happens in April or May.
4. Change Requests: Students request any changes they would like to make to the previously requested courses. This window is in June.

In late February through April, the campus master schedule is built based on the number of course requests that are in the system. The numbers of sections, seats, etc. are all built based on these student requests and available staff.

When students make a request for a change in June, they are limited to the availability of seats and whether or not the requested change works in their schedule. Not all requests are able to be honored. We have a finite number of staff who have a set number of sections they can teach and a limited amount of space in those sections. This means that some classes may be filled/closed.

Due to summer staff changes, some changes may be made to the order of the courses in some students' schedules. This is because some sections may have had to move or close, and some new sections may have opened requiring us to move some students out of an old section or into a new section.  This can sometimes happen through early fall.

When a counselor has to select a class for a student due to a hole in the schedule, she looks carefully at 1) personal graduation plan/career planner and 2) what is available. In most cases, she will try to reach the student to ask for preferred courses to complete the schedule.