New academic classes and conservatories are put up for consideration every year– but not many students know the process behind it.
As the semester progresses, CSArts is drawing closer to yet another new school year. Many new academic and elective classes have appeared on the 2026-2027 course selection form, including Earth & Space Science and Latin Jazz. Similarly, AP African American Studies was added as a class this school year. The addition of these courses may seem random, but there is a long procedure to even get it to that point.
“Teachers who have interest in teaching something different will propose a class,” says Nicole Read, the principal of academics. Often, teachers will present the course to the admin team, stating the title, objectives, standards, and sample assignments. Beyond this point, classes are approved based on student and teacher interest, class availability, and scheduling considerations. If the class is a good fit, the administration brings it to the school board, Read says.
After the class is approved by the school board, “we put it on all the course request forms. We can only run it if enough kids sign up for it.” Typically, for a class to be available for the next year, at least twenty to thirty students would need to show interest in their course request forms. Old classes are dropped when new ones are added, so the amount of money and time remains roughly the same.
The process of adding new conservatories, however, is a bit more complicated. “I’ll use film and television as an example. Film and TV has been on our radar for many, many years as a possible new conservatory,” says Read. Though student interest is especially high, Film & TV doesn’t seem likely to take off anytime soon. Many of the equipment and employment costs seem to be too high to be considered, so much so that Read predicts costs as much as millions of dollars to even get it off the ground.
But, many students would be happy with just a little bit of change with the way their conservatories are run. “I feel like I should have the option to test up to higher level art classes and dance classes and these things because I know people who leave IA because they’re not content with the level they’re at,” says Arianne Chao, a 10th grader currently in the Integrated Arts Conservatory. She would like the opportunity to “borrow” classes from other conservatories, especially in the fields of art forms such as colored pencils and watercolor.
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