Journalism, the few clubs at our school, JROTC. Many students here are unaware of the many electives this school provides. This is due to the lack of broadcasting for these activities, and it’s harming the school’s spirit. Although the district provides us with resources to be college-ready, it fails to provide us information on what electives are available to them. This is why many of these hidden electives and clubs need better coverage and awareness.

Writing stories about certain sports here at the school already proves difficult. Obtaining information on certain teams is proven impossible unless you know someone who knows someone. For example, our school’s l powerlifting team, who qualified three athletes to state competition, has no category in the athletics section on the school’s website.

The only available information granted to students about electives is either from the one page in our middle school’s career pathways class or with the vague descriptions of classes on Xello. It’s difficult for those who move into the district and for those who have no idea about any sort of electives other than the six they have students rotate through in intermediate. It’s frustrating to decide our future schedules when we have no idea if it’ll be a class we’d enjoy or not. If the class is chosen and not enjoyed, students will either have to burn through the year or go through the lengthy process of switching classes and adjusting their whole schedule.

What needs to be put into place are actions towards informing youth in the district’s primary schools about the many electives, clubs, and organizations available to them. What this will do for not just them, but for the programs, is fill empty seats to have better group engagement, where classrooms wont have just 4 cadets or 7 athletes. It’ll provide students with more career opportunities, as a student who didn’t have any idea that journalism existed as an elective option might want to write and publish their own newspapers/articles. 

It could be said that the district does help electives, as the school’s JROTC program has students go to T.A. Howard and talk to career pathway students. Although this is the case, this is the only elective that did this for that one class; which many students could’ve missed or weren’t given enough time to be persuaded. Talking to many teachers, many of T.A. Howard’s students don’t attend the school’s teacher night- where they come after school hours to view the courses that could be taken in high school. 

The district needs better coverage on electives and clubs that will appeal to elementary, intermediate, and middle schoolers. So many brilliant teachers, directors, and coaches struggle when students are chucked into their class without taking prerequisites and have few to none in the class itself or who participate. It’s hurting those who have to pick up the spirit of these activities that’s supposed to fuel the school’s success.