Northampton students and parents decry NHS scheduling crisis; committee authorizes immediate hires and seeks follow-up funding

Northampton — Students, parents and school staff told the Northampton School Committee on June 10 that recent budget cuts left Northampton High School (NHS) unable to run enough course sections, creating “holes” in many seniors’ schedules and forcing some students to consider taking multiple classes off campus.

The committee heard more than a dozen public comments from NHS students, parents and paraeducators describing the scale of the problem and the impacts on college preparation and daily life. “This huge problem could be solved by hiring the teachers that NHS needs,” student Anna Lucia Ohm said. Zara Sman, newly elected president of the student union, told the committee, “I am literally unable to take classes at my own high school.”

The comments described common situations: seniors with an empty period because no class was…