Requiring students at D.C.’s School Without Walls to take a senior project course will make it extremely difficult for a number of seniors to finish their high school careers on time, according to a growing tide of parents.

In the rest of the D.C. Public Schools System, high school students won’t have to participate in the senior project class until three years from now.

But School Without Walls Principal Richard Trogisch this summer began notifying families that the course would become mandatory this school year.

Trish Chittams, the mother of a School Without Walls senior, said she is troubled by the decision and is asking the central office staff to reverse it.

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“I have four schedules of my son’s on our refrigerator, and none are the same,” she told The Examiner, adding she is worried he won’t be able to fit in all of the courses he needs to graduate. “It’s very confusing. Things keep changing.”

Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s spokeswoman Mafara Hobson said Rhee’s staff is examining the possible impact on students’ schedules and is expected to rule on the requirement today.

According to a letter Trogisch sent home with students, the senior project course “offers a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum.” The one-credit course is divided into four components — the research paper, project, portfolio and presentation — on a topic of the student’s choice.

School Without Walls is a nontraditional high school on the campus of George Washington University that focuses on experiential learning, where classes aren’t confined necessarily to physical classrooms.

The school has some of the same graduation requirements as other D.C. public schools, as well as some of its own, Hobson said.

“It’s not like other schools,” she said, adding that principals in other D.C. public schools would not have the ability to alter graduation requirements independently.

Calls to the school were not returned Monday.

dlevitz@dcexaminer.com