February 2008

Dear Students and Parents:

This letter and the enclosed materials mark the beginning of our course selection and scheduling process for the next academic year. Our procedures and deadlines are designed to allow students to choose among a variety of courses and meeting times.  Please review the High School Course of Study, Course Planning Worksheet and Registration Sheet carefully.  You will find the Course of Study as well as the other materials contained in this packet online at www.gds.org/courseofstudy. Contacting advisors, department heads, college counselors, Assistant Principal Tom Yoder or me well in advance of deadlines with questions and concerns will be advantageous.

There are two key deadlines: Wednesday, February 27 when course selections must be turned in to the student’s advisor and Wednesday, March 19, when course selection change requests must be completed.  Between these dates parents are encouraged to contact their child’s advisor regarding course selections to assure that students are appropriately challenged and satisfy graduation requirements.

Students and parents should review the online Course of Study document, discuss course options and make final course selections by Wednesday, February 27. This year we are asking parents to sign, and make sure their student returns, the course selection sheet to indicate that they are fully aware of their child’s proposed schedule for next year.  Selections should take into consideration our graduation requirements as well as a student’s interests, abilities, and out-of-school commitments. The required minimum for each semester’s work is five academic courses, unless special circumstances arise. Simply meeting GDS’s graduation requirements will not be sufficient to make students competitive in the college admissions process. The most selective colleges expect the ideal applicant to have taken the following courses: 4 years of English, 4 years of mathematics, 4 years of foreign language, 3–4 years of the biological and physical sciences, and 3–4 years of history and social sciences.  Overloading oneself, however, should not be seen as synonymous with taking a rigorous course load.  Students electing to take AP courses should be aware that the workload for AP courses can be substantially more than what it is for non-AP courses. Please be advised that some AP math and science courses meet for double periods thereby reducing a student’s unscheduled or free time.  In thinking about next year, current juniors should also be aware that they must complete their 60 hours of approved community service by the start of their senior year.

Between February 27 and March 19, department heads, teachers, college counselors, Assistant Principal Tom Yoder and I will review all registration requests. Parents and students will be notified if there is a concern regarding the appropriateness of a student’s course selections or if a course will not be running.  On Friday, May 16, in arena style, students may make period and teacher preference requests to departments.  These will be honored to the fullest extent possible but cannot be guaranteed, as some sections may be desired by more students than can be accommodated.

Students’ schedules will be distributed before school closes for the summer. 

Sincerely,
Kevin J. Barr
Principal

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