High school students often highlight the burden of their schedules as one of their main concerns. Many report having between 8 and 18 hours of classes each day, with complaints about disorganization and the difficulty of managing such heavy workloads. School principals face the challenge of creating these schedules, balancing the availability of teachers, classrooms, and the diverse choices of students. With nearly 700 students, each with different subject selections, the process is described as highly complex. Olivier Beaufrère, a principal and national secretary of the SNPDEN, a major union for school management staff, explains that scheduling involves many variables, making it a difficult and time-consuming task. There are specific rules that must be followed when creating schedules. For instance, students cannot have two physical education classes within 24 hours, and sports teachers are limited to six hours per day. At the middle school level, the school day is generally limited to six hours, but in high school, no such restrictions apply, allowing for longer school days, sometimes from 8 am to 6 pm. Olivier Beaufrère acknowledges that students’ concerns are valid but points out that if they choose not to have classes on Saturday mornings, they must still manage their workload within the remaining time. When students request to start at 9 am, they may end up with classes running until 7 pm. Schools use software like Pronote to create schedules, inputting details such as the number of students, their subject choices, teacher availability, and classroom availability. This process is complicated by numerous special cases, such as full-time teachers, substitutes, interns, and teachers with varying schedules. On the student side, the situation is also challenging. Classes are not grouped by subject options to encourage more diverse interactions, which means students must find "barrettes"—times when all students are available for their chosen subjects. One SNPDEN secretary notes that in their last high school, they had 1,400 hours to schedule, leading to gaps in the schedule. French high school students have the highest average number of class hours in Europe, with about 28 hours per week, making it especially difficult to find suitable rooms for all subjects, especially in older schools. Additional constraints, such as lunch breaks and transportation, further complicate the scheduling process. Olivier Beaufrère suggests that artificial intelligence could help with some of these scheduling challenges, but not all. Initial schedule drafts are usually created in January when schools receive their teaching hour allocations, with the process intensifying in May as student transfers are finalized. However, the main scheduling work happens during the summer, with final schedules usually completed in September, just before the school year begins. Adjustments continue in high schools, although not all students are satisfied with the final result.