In my area, it's called Norm Day, and it's the cutoff from the district as to when all class sizes are counted. They try their best to predict what enrollment will be, but until the kids show up (and they don't always show up the first few days), the schools won't know what types of numbers they're dealing with.

The added wrinkle in middle school is that the kids have six classes a day and virtually all of them are required. So if one class gets closed (or another one opens), they have to juggle the schedules of all the kids affected. And the kids in Algebra might also need Spanish and Student Government, which doesn't leave many slots. So sometimes kids unaffected by the class norming will be moved to accommodate the kids that are affected.

It's not ideal, but sometimes it takes a few weeks to get through all the hirings and make sure all the kids are going to stay in the classes in order to know how many slots of each they need.

If you have any questions, contact your child's counselor and ask away. You won't be the first parent to call and ask, and they'll do their best to explain to you the glitches that caused this particular situation.

Good luck, and you might want to join us in the Middle School Parents Group located here: community.greatschools.net/groups/11528