High School Principal Roger Arbabi and his team, have made important changes for this year’s electives, offering more options for students. 

The Electives Team, made up of Principal Arbabi, Vice-Principal Vicky Jaramillo, and the Columbus Technology Department, work add as many electives as possible each year.

“I always look to try and increase the number of electives students have access to every year,” Arbabi said.

According to the students, having more choices is very useful. Electives allow students to study things they are interested in and gives them an opportunity to experience a variety of both creative and educational paths.

“I have noticed that the vast choices that we have, have helped me to carve the path to what comes next, you can experience different work ethics and different fields, which will help you with future decisions,” 11th grade student, Federico Caro, said.

Even though having options has been very helpful for student that want to expand their knowledge in a variety of fields, the managing of all the different variables has been challenging for the administrative team.

“To create the schedule that we have is a very complex process. I want to maintain the ability to have as many options as possible, but it gets to a point that some students can’t take the elective they want,” Arbabi said.

Last year’s registration process was not easy for students or administration. Because of complications to the process, by November, about 400 schedule changes were made, creating confusion and disappointment for many students.

“My schedule was changed twice. I had to change classes in the middle of the week, which meant adapting to the other groups and to the different teachers. It was not an easy process,” Martin Restrepo, 11th grader, said.

By adding strategies like a whole block for the students to visit and talk to the elective teachers, this year Arbabi and his team, made the process different, so that the students have a more broad explanation and fulfilling experience on how next year’s electives are going to be.

“We gave you guys a long time this year and we met with parents, because we are trying to eliminate those changes. That is why we had you talk to all of the teachers and do the pre work,” Arbabi said.

While the the majority of classes are required, electives are important because they represent independence and allow students to make decisions about their own education.

“I truly believe that electives are the courses that make a difference to our independence. The fact that the school allows us to choose one of our classes changes everything in the day,” Restrepo said.