Officials at Las Positas College are considering pushing back the registration date for high school students looking to take classes on campus.

The proposal, recommended by faculty to the college's Academic Senate, would make it easier for full-time students to get the classes they need to graduate, some officials say.

Students have found it difficult to get into required classes as the number of course offerings are shrinking throughout the state as colleges and universities try to balance losses in funding due to the state budget crisis.

"It's not that we don't want the high school students to register," said Barbara Morrisey, a counselor at Las Positas College. "(College ready) students should have priority over the high-school students."

Faculty offered the idea in late October.

If approved by the Academic Senate, a body of representatives of various faculty groups on campus, the proposal would then move to the president's office. The president would also need to approve the proposal before it can be reviewed by the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District Board of Trustees.

Details of the proposal show that the registration date for high school students would begin five days prior to the beginning of each semester.

Currently, spring semester registration for high school students starts in mid-December. If the proposal is approved, registration for high school students would be pushed back to mid-January, officials said.

Budget constraints are not the only reason officials are considering this proposal.

Morrisey also cited students' college attendance after high school as a concern.

"High school students who take concurrent enrollment don't always continue here as students," she said. "That's a couple-hundred seats that our students could have."

Many concurrent enrollment students take classes at the college for advanced placement or because their high school does not offer them.

Morrisey said general education classes, notably math and science, are the most impacted.

Livermore High School Principal Darrel Avilla said high school students have historically had a difficult time enrolling at the college.

"I know it's extremely difficult for any of our students to get into Las Positas classes because it's so impacted," he said.

However, he added that, "if the rationale is to give Las Positas students more opportunity, I'm not going to argue that point."