Does Toga lack electives? Yes and no

Sophomore Simrita Advani came to the district last year from Stratford, a private school in San Jose, and was disappointed to find that business classes aren’t offered here.

“I was really looking forward to taking a business class because my father is a lawyer, so business skills come as a second nature to me,” Advani said.

According to assistant principal Brian Safine, the school lacks some electives that some other schools have such as home economics and woodworking. This might be due to the fact that these schools have around twice the population of Saratoga.

With only approximately 1,350 students, the school doesn’t have enough students to fill all the potential electives some want. Students can only fit so many classes into their seven-period days.

“When you are dealing with a smaller student population, there is not always enough students to fill class sections,” Safine said. “Therefore, we can’t offer everything that students might be interested in taking.”

However, nearby Prospect High has a similar population to Saratoga High, but it has a range of electives that includes cooking, manufacturing, production technology, public speaking, peer tutoring, street law, dance performance, technical theatre, madrigals, acapella and treble clef choir.

This is most likely due to Saratoga High’s demand for STEM classes and not enough demand for some hands-on visual and applied art electives.

Los Gatos High School, with 1,912 students  has most of the electives SHS does, but also has ones such as cooking, work experience, agroecology, business, woodshop and social entrepreneurship.

In previous years, classes such as Japanese and business were offered to students but didn’t get enough sign-ups, Safine said. Other electives were later replaced by new classes. For example, as technology advanced and students started to lose interest in woodshop, new engineering classes took their place.

Still, some students wish that the electives offered at other schools were taught here as well.

“I think that Japanese is a good [language to add] because we only offer Spanish, Chinese and French,” senior Audrey Dang said. “I know that a lot of people are interested in Japanese culture.”

Many students also expressed interest in courses such as business, woodshop and biomedical sciences.

“I think one of the repercussions of not having a wide variety of courses is that we are not able to explore more areas of study,” senior Aileen Zhang said.

But according to Safine, students aren’t limited to the classes. If they are interested in any particular class, they are able to take that course online or at a community college and receive credit for it.

In addition, the school is always willing to consider new interests for various classes for students. Ideas for new courses can either be generated by student or teacher interest, Safine said.

“If there is a match of teacher credential and student interest, then we bring it to our school leadership team,” Safine said. “If it is approved, then it will be moved up to the district level. And if it is approved at the district level, then we will allow students to enroll in the class for the fall.”