When students see the list of classes they are offered each February for the following year, they can entertain going down multiple possible pathways like the Media Arts Program or an engineering route or something in the arts like drama or music. These pathways, alongside mandatory classes, allow students to pick electives that fit their interests and gain important credits toward graduation.
Each of the electives available for students, along with some that students wish were offered but are currently unavailable, undergo a process of review before being added to the roster of options, counselors say.
The first step in increasing class offerings is evaluating student interest. Following district policy, the district adheres to a strict timeline for New Course Proposal and Modification, which starts with reviewing course offerings in October. According to guidance counselor Frances Saiki, interest is officially determined when students finalize their course selection by March. Looking at the number of students signed up for each course, the administrators and department chairs assemble a schedule of classes for the year.
The district has also implemented a new course survey for students over the past few years. Based on the survey feedback, this school year the district applied for a CTEIG grant, a fund that grants money for career technical education, and will potentially explore offering an International Cuisine course on campus in the coming years.
To determine what courses can be included in the following year’s master schedule, the district gives SHS a budget for the number of classes teachers teach. To make that budget work, signups for a single class typically have to be at least in the mid 20s; if not, the class often won’t run.
Partly due to the unaffordable Bay Area prices resulting in school’s overall enrollment declining — from around 1,400 a decade ago to about 1,100 now — it’s become harder for some electives to get enough signups to run. Consequently, some classes have been combined into a single section consisting of multiple levels of a class, such as Journalism One being combined with Yearbook, in order for the class size to approach 30.
Furthermore, classes such as AP Computer Science A have become extremely popular, becoming almost a mandatory requirement in many students’ minds in sophomore year. In taking these classes, students are effectively making it harder for other classes to survive.
Aside from issues with student sign-ups, even if a course is requested, there are still other requirements that need to be met. Finding a qualified teacher is sometimes an obstacle.
While classes like multimedia journalism and newspaper require a more common English credential, it is easier to find qualified teachers. However, the previously offered Introduction to Business class, which was taught by science teacher Kirk Davis before he retired in 2024, requires a teacher with a business credential. Since no current teacher holds that credential, the class hasn’t been offered since 2024.
Nevertheless, obstacles for adding the class don’t always equate to a lack of interest — instead, interest is usually present in a small number of passionate students. Classes that used to be offered years ago such as Marine Biology, Business and Japanese remain top picks for students who wish they could take them.
Marine Biology elective first lose teacher, then signups
According to science teacher Cheryl Lenz, Marine Biology used to be combined with a semester of Astronomy until Marine Biology became its own class in 2021 due to the retirement of science teacher Jill McCrystal, who had the necessary Earth Science credential for the class. Afterwards, Lenz expanded the class into a year-long class and taught it for two years until it was dropped from the course offerings because of insufficient sign-ups for the 2023-24 school year.
The course content was organized by ecosystem and covered the ocean environment, marine organisms and the way the two interacted. Students took a field trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium during the fall and participated in multiple projects and dissections throughout the year.
Freshman Lilya Wroblewski, who has had an interest in Marine Biology from an early age, hopes the class will be offered again soon.
“Some of my first memories were watching marine biology videos on YouTube,” Wroblewski said. “I definitely want to take the class one way or another, so if the school will not offer the class, I’ll try to find a class or a volunteering opportunity outside of school.”
Wroblewski also has annual passes to the Monterey Bay aquarium, where she has observed the unique marine life. Over the summer, she has attended Ocean Explorers Camp, a camp where she sleeps on a dive boat and sees different animals in the water such as starfish, sea lions and sea urchins.
“As humans, we don’t experience the water like animals do, so understanding marine life is such a unique thing,” Wroblewski said. “I feel like it’s really applicable to the real world, and it’s a whole other world that you can learn about.”
Business elective dropped from offerings after teacher retirement One of the highlights of the Introduction to Business course was creating business proposals for a real-world product and presenting them to the class. Through activities like these, students learned a foundational overview of business concepts.
Junior Yassna Rastegar Panah, who is interested in business and considering a career in this field, was surprised upon learning that a business class is not offered at the school.
“Ever since freshman year, I’d been looking forward to taking Intro to Business in our school my junior year. But at the end of sophomore year, I was informed that the class would no longer be available at school, and I was quite disappointed,” Rastegar Panah said.
She ultimately took the class as a dual enrollment course at De Anza College. Rastegar Panah says she is grateful for the opportunity, especially since it gives her college credit for the class. She hopes the school will implement a business class for students who have the interest.
“For people like me who want to pursue a career in business, the school has limited options for classes that complement my major. Meanwhile, we have about five AP science classes,” Rastegar Panah said. “It would be great if our school offered AP Macroeconomics or AP Microeconomics because our school only offers one semester of economics in our senior year.”
Japanese elective overtaken by other language classes
When PE and former Japanese teacher Yuko Aoki was hired 27 years ago, there were three levels of Japanese, with Aoki being one of the three teachers who taught the classes. Soon after, the AP Japanese class became offered as well. In Japanese 1, students focused on learning culture, basic conversation and writing, while Japanese 2, 3 and AP Japanese focused on more in-depth topics.
As one of the hardest languages to learn, Japanese differs completely from English with its distinctive alphabet and pronunciation, making it unique to learn. Aoki recalls the high interest in the class when she first started working at SHS, attributing it to Japan being very economically strong and having popular anime and collectibles in the U.S.
One of the highlights of the school’s Japanese program was the option to travel to Japan for two weeks as part of an exchange program. There, students crafted unforgettable memories through activities such as sightseeing, karaoke and visiting Japanese high schools, applying the skills they learned in class. Other fun projects included creating a travel plan for Japan as well as creating cooking videos where students cooked an authentic Japanese dish.
Even with a variety of activities, class enrollment started to decline when Chinese was added as a language class in the early 2000s at the requests of many native speakers in the community. Aside from Japanese, French and Spanish were also already offered, resulting in the variety of language classes being unsupportable by the student population.
While people still wanted to learn Japanese, the majority was already taking Chinese due to the easy path to earning language credits for the class, and most did not have space for additional language classes. Six years ago, there was an attempt to revive the class but because of the continuous low interest, the class only lasted for four years.
“I miss teaching Japanese sometimes, and it would be a fun class, especially since many Japanese cartoons are still very popular,” Aoki said.
Aside from Marine Biology, Introduction to Business and Japanese, other electives that used to be offered include Statistics in Sports, Finite Math and Multimedia Journalism (SHSTV). While SHS already has a multitude of classes, many students hope for a continued increase in course offerings, as it can ultimately benefit the community through encouraging diverse interests.
“Classes that are more niche can often be a better show of character for students compared to the more standard classes,” Wroblewski said. “It can support students with less common interests and ultimately create a stronger sense of community.”
