Beloved Electives Disappearing

Several electives are being removed for the 2026-2027 school year since teachers are being surplussed. The budget has gone down, so Northwest can’t afford to keep a lot of the elective teachers.

The new school start times are taking up a good portion of the budget. If the start times were kept the same, some or all of the teachers presumably would not have to be surplussed.

“In teacher’s ed we talked about the new start times. There were hardly any arguments for the good side; it mainly affects everyone negatively. The budget should definitely be put into keeping teachers rather than the buses,” Sophomore Cami Medina decides. 

The second year of art– Drawing 1/Painting 1– is going to be removed. This will leave only Art 1, which will be taught by the current photography teacher. 

“I would keep Mr. Christensen, not only for the second year of art, but I still wish that it were kept. Now that he’s leaving, art will be taught by someone who doesn’t want to. I feel like he would teach it better because he actually wants to,” Junior Sara Afework explains. 

Another one of the electives being taken away is photography. It's not a super difficult class, so it would be fun for people who are interested in the subject.

“I wanted to take photography. I was really looking forward to learning how to use a camera and take cool photos. It would’ve been a really fun experience and would take some stress off my schedule next year,” Cami said.