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Graduation Pathways

Posted by BD on 5/13/2022, 8:51 am

I am looking for info on high school band scheduling in regards to graduation pathways.

We are currently a 9th/10th grade campus and will be adding 11th grade next year.

How can I make sure that our band kids will not be taken out due to a specific graduation pathway a student may choose? Or is it even possible?

Looking for pointers, prior experience. We have a novice scheduler, so I'm a bit nervous.

Thank you for your help.

Re: Graduation Pathways

Posted by Me on 5/13/2022, 11:57 am, in reply to "Graduation Pathways"

Your best ally here is the counselor, followed by whomever does the master schedule. Make sure that you have as few higher-level singleton classes (like AP anything, for example) scheduled opposite your varsity ensemble as possible.

Also make sure that your counselor knows that students can earn multiple endorsements on their diploma, and arts/humanities (ie: band) has an endorsement.

Re: Graduation Pathways

Posted by Thunder on 5/20/2022, 6:12 pm, in reply to "Re: Graduation Pathways"

Mind sharing what "band" endorsement for their diplomas is? I've not looked in to this before.

Re: Graduation Pathways

Posted by Me on 5/25/2022, 3:48 pm, in reply to "Re: Graduation Pathways"

As stated, arts/humanities. If you're in a fine arts elective for four years, it's an endorsement.

Re: Graduation Pathways

Posted by Thunder on 5/13/2022, 10:25 am, in reply to "Graduation Pathways"

Get them to remove band from GPA calculations for class rank.

11th and 12th graders started dropping band and other extracurriculars to take classes that are 5.0 or 6.0 weight for class rank calculations. Kids who were in band and other extracurriculars were at a disadvantage.

Alternatively, have band 3 (juniors) and band 4 (Seniors) count as 5.0 and 6.0 respectively (They are essentially advanced band). Same should go for other 4-year extracurriculars.

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