The first day of school in the 2025-2026 academic year was filled with confusion as Pioneer High School students walked into classrooms to find students taking completely different courses sitting at their table. Some of these instances were common scheduling issues, but most came with a new policy: combined sections.
As a result, classes such as German IV and AP German, as well as all sections of Latin, have been combined into one hour to accommodate for a smaller teacher body and less time for elective courses. This has put a strain on teacher’s ability to focus on their students.
Pioneer Principal Desmond Smith says that the new class style comes from changes to budgeting on the district level, including a new minimum 18-student requirement. “We had staffing meetings all spring and summer with our bosses at central office,” says Smith, “and they kept looking at our numbers for enrollment and how many students were scheduled in each section, and if it didn’t hit that 18 mark, then they told us to either cut it or combine it with something. So we’re trying to save some classes by combining and some got cut.”…