Concerns have been raised surrounding the availability of elective courses for students in the Manitowoc Public School District.
A trusted source has told Seehafer News that often in the past, students will sign up for classes such as art, music, or theater, only to find out later those electives are not being offered.
We contacted Manitowoc Superintendent Mark Holzman about those concerns.
Holzman explained starting in January or February students enroll in courses in which they’re interested.
Then, school staff will examine the number of sections they need and the course signup list for students.
“There are times where there aren’t enough students who sign up for a class to run it,” Holzman explained. “Let’s say there was a class that only four or five students sign up for. We are not in the financial position to run a class of four or five, so we tell those students that they can’t take that class but they could take something else or go to a study hall.”
The superintendent said staff is hired to make certain they have what they need for those students and “that’s not something which happens after the fact.”
So, he added, once they establish the sections needed, students are informed well in advance of the school year if there’s a class they requested but isn’t going to run.
Holzman said it “does happen occasionally, but typically we are able to move that student into another art class or another music class…and run that in that section.”
He explained that it happens every year because “there’s a number of elective courses that kids can choose, but we provide sections for the ones students want.”
And, if there’s a small number of students who want that class they just don’t offer that this year, and they will put it on the books for next year and maybe more kids will take it in the future.
Some of their students are taking youth apprenticeship classes, so they’re not taking many electives at all, but rather working half the day off-campus.
