Lauren Hettasch is a senior at Riverside Brookfield high school.  For the past 3 years, she has taken what colleges would consider the most rigorous course schedule the school has to offer. Not only is she an A student, Hettasch has participated in multiple extracurricular activities. Hettasch is top of her class, and anticipated on challenging herself through her senior year with an intense course schedule and being involved in the arts.

Unfortunately, Hettasch’s plans for senior year came to an abrupt halt at the end of last year.

Hettasch started off her freshman year in Honors Geometry, which is considered to be a sophomore level class. In the past three years, Hettasch has completed. : A.P. calc, A.P. Micro economics, A.P. Macro Economics, A.P. Language and Composition, and A.P. U.S. History.

Aside from being a high honor roll student at RB, the past 3 years Hettasch has participated in the school musical, the school play, Choir, and the Math team. This year, that will not be possible.

This summer, cuts were made not only to clubs at RB, but to the courses offered at RB. A class that was lost was A.P. Calculus B.C.   A.P. Calculus B.C. was offered to the students who take Geometry as a freshman and had completed Calculus A.B. by the end of their Junior Year.  Lauren, along with multiple other students, were denied the opportunity to take this class. Because this class was no longer offered it really put a dent on Lauren’s senior year plans.

“We were all really looking forward to taking B.C., Freshman year we skipped algebra and went into geometry. Since then we have been looking forward until senior year when we would be able to take B.C.” said Hettasch.

Hettasch settled on taking A.P. Statistics and A.P. Computer Science instead. She said, “It’s really working out for me. As long as I’m in a math class I’m fine. I was just really hoping to take B.C. In college I want to major in a Math, and the further I could have gotten in Calculus the more helpful it would have been.” Hettasch hopes to attend DePaul University next Fall.

Hettasch was not only denied the math class of her choice, but she along with her other teammates , will no longer be able to participate in Math Team this school year. The Math team is known for going down state multiple times since Hettasch has attended RB.

“While RB sports teams are great, Math team has actually gone down state, so it’s frustrating that we had to be cut” Said Hettasch.

Hettasch’s disappointment doesn’t end with math. The school play which would have taken place this fall was cut. Hettasch described her experience with the play as amazing. Along with the play, there also will not be a school musical.  The only extracurricular activity that was saved for Hettasch’s senior year was choir, which is a class that takes place during the school day.

Despite the setback, Hettasch is not giving up. Currently she is working with other students in the Fine Arts department to find away to still have a school musical.

“We are discussing fund raiser opportunities as well as maybe going to an outside theatre.” said Hettasch. “It’s upsetting not to be able to have our senior play with RB because we’ll miss our circle time, which is like senior night for athletics that we have been looking forward to since freshman year.”

In college, Hettasch plans on returning to Plays and Musicals as well as Math team.