Does your high school have a career practicum option? My daughter was able to find an internship at a nearby university and took three career practicum credits and an online AP class so that she could do the internship on alternating days. Her school has alternating day block schedule. She took three AP classes on her “at school day.” She gave up the chance to take three weighted AP classes because the career practicum units were not weighted, which ultimately dropped her class rank to third, but in the end she was offered an excellent scholarship at a small private school. Her high school sounds similarly inflexible to yours and she had to do a proposal and we had to help her campaign for it. She had an amazing senior year, got to do some really interesting independent research, placed in a regional science competition and got to go to the nationals, plus do a lot of fun music based activities. A lot more interesting for her and we believe it will be beneficial to her over the long haul. It is very hard for some schools to think outside the box, but not impossible.