BELLVILLE — Brian Brown knows electives are often the classes students are most excited to take.
That’s why the principal of Clear Fork High School was happy to report several were put back on the master schedule before the start of the school year.
Some of the classes brought back for either fall or spring semester include weightlifting, mythology, music theory, coding and robotics, yearbook and skills prep.
Other courses include sections of Chemistry I, current events and Trigonometry, along with popular history electives focused on the Holocaust and the Vietnam War.
It was a welcome reversal for students and parents after a number of electives were cut in early August.
“The things that we were allowed to bring back are very impactful. They all speak to a very specific student here at Clear Fork,” Brown said.
“Not everyone says, ‘Gosh, I want to learn about Vietnam and the Holocaust. But there’s a group out there, they’re intrigued by that type of stuff.’”
The original course cuts came after Clear Fork’s board of education voted to not replace four teachers and enforce a minimum class size of 10 students at the high school.
Brown said the situation is still “far from ideal,” but administrators and the board worked together to boost class offerings and reduce study hall numbers.
“It wasn’t (the board’s) intention to have that number of classes go away,” Brown said. “We’ve had conversations and they are supportive. They want to see those classes brought back.
“They just want to see it done to make sure that everyone is getting the most out of what we have for right now.”
Board President Lori McKee confirmed the board had a follow-up conversation with high school administrators after the vote “for further clarification.”
“This conversation was a dialogue, not a directive,” McKee said via text.
“(We looked) at options, for example, instead of offering a course two times in the schedule, offer it once. Instead of offering low enrollment classes every year, offer them every other year.”
Brown said the classes that were brought back depended in part of teachers’ schedules, open slots in the master schedule and student interest.
Some teachers were able to bolster their class sizes during the first week of school by recruiting students from study halls, which had grown massive after the schedule changes.
Four different class periods had 90 students or more in study hall — one had 140.
After some of the courses were reinstated, those numbers dropped, with most sections at around 50 students per class period.
“We’re not opposed to kids having study hall, but that number wasn’t manageable,” Brown said. “With smaller numbers, they can split into classrooms.”
