Big Changes Come to HS Elective System

Changes in the class registration process are being implemented by the High School administration to ensure students will choose the right classes for next year.

 Students had two X blocks, February 14 and 21, to see all the classes,  discuss with their mentors, parents, teachers, and choose the best classes for them.

“Creating a system where every single student has a mentor a teacher that can guide and support, and give advise every single student,” Juan David Lopez, High School Principal, said.

Every student had a teacher who guided them through the process of selecting classes. They will be able to use their greater knowledge to steer students into choosing the classes that are right for them.

“You can see all of the videos of every single class and its basically every single teacher describing their class,” Lopez said.

Students went to a Schoology course where teachers posted videos describing their classes and students can ask questions in the comment. This helped students have all the information they need to choose their schedule.

“Changing the English Classes you take for that there still ninth grade English but from there you can take Journalism I, Journalism II, and perhaps in the future Pre Ap course who would still have the two Ap courses and there’s another course creative design,” Trisha Nikrandt, Learning Coordinator, said.

The school has also added extra optative classes for Art and English. This gives more choice for students to choose what suits them best for their career while staying in requirements.

“Next school year we aren’t hiring any new staff so will have to use the staff that we have to teach the courses that we are offering to students,” Nikrandt said.

Teachers will have more classes to teach because the school isn’t adding any extra staff for the new classes they are offering.  This means that teachers have a greater workload next year.

“Student won’t be able to change their schedule in the first week of school,” Lopez said.

A drawback to the system is that students won’t be able to change their classes so easily because the administration wants to make schedule better and this makes changing schedule difficult to change. This will make it especially important that students choose the right class in the next weeks.

“Student will have a little bit more choice and in the future, we will like to add more choice while still meeting the requirements,” Nikrandt said.

The goal of the school would be to add as many elective classes as they can.  This system allowed them to keep having classes while still having students be able to look at all their options.

“The idea is that we can have more electives,” Lopez said.