Page 6 - May 2014 Dell & Cannon

4 May 2014 I Ransom Everglades School I Dell + Cannon
Michael R. Ferguson + Associate Head of School, Upper School Director
This is the time of year that we begin the scheduling process for the fall. It
can be a time consuming and tedious process at times due to the many
choices our students have, especially for grades 11 and 12. It includes the
involvement of faculty, advisors, academic deans, department chairs, students
and parents, not to mention our two schedulers. For that reason, it is imperative
that parents and students understand this process in detail. We will not have the
final schedules completed until July and sometimes not until August.
Let me first write a few words about our wonderfully diverse curriculum. Since I have been at Ransom
Everglades School, which is since 1993, we have not only increased our enrollment by over 170
students, but we have greatly enhanced our curriculum to keep pace. The choices for our students
are ample in every discipline. Students can take a great number of Honors and AP courses if they
are pre-approved to do so, or they can focus on many electives in the Fine Arts, and really, in every
department. They might not get every course they want, but they do have the opportunity to apply.
Hopefully, students are able to get the majority of courses they really want to take.
As you noticed, for some disciplines such as Social Sciences, Science, and Fine Arts, students are
recommended to list three choices for each. That precaution is because there might be a conflict when
attempting to schedule one or more courses and the schedulers can then go to the second or third
choice to complete the process. We also have to be cautious that Sciences do have labs to figure in to
student schedules. Regular and Honors Science courses, except for Intro to Engineering, have one lab
period a week. AP Science courses have two lab periods a weeks. We do schedule one lab a week at
times for the regular and Honors courses into lunch period, PE or a Fine Art period. We do not schedule
AP Science labs into any of those periods as they only occur on the block days.
Therefore, depending on student Science requests, the scheduler may have to go to those other choices
if the first choice plus lab does not fit. However, we are willing to schedule more than one level of a
Fine Arts course in with others if the teacher(s) approve of that arrangement. The flexibility to do so
makes it more likely that we can overcome some of those scheduling conflicts. Having said that, there
may still be times that a schedule just won’t work at all and we have to go back to square one to start
over. Those are small in number, but if it does happen to your student, it isn’t the end of the world. We
work diligently to satisfy all students to the best of our ability.
Some other issues to keep in mind are the overloads for AP courses, six academics and/or five
academics and two Fine Art courses. Students know from their advisors that a request for two or more
approved AP courses in 10th or 11th grade, or four or more in 12th grade, requires an overload AP
form which they can get from the appropriate academic dean. Parent, student, advisor and academic
dean sign off before it is finally reviewed by the Upper School Director. The caution here as well as
for six academics or two Fine Arts is that we want to make sure that students are not overburdening
themselves. We also consider how many athletic teams they will be on, what other extracurricular
MESSAGE
from the
Upper
SCHOOL
Scheduling For Next Year
Dear Ransom Everglades Community: