Course Catalog Reveals Changes That May Surprise Students

A screenshot of the 25-26 WHS course registration website. Photo Creds: Watauga Publishing

Rebecca Billette & Bridget Flaherty

Update: A previous version of our story reported that Holocaust and Modern Genocide would be alternate with Sociology every other year due to shifts in the budget. These classes will both be offered next year.

With course registration underway, students at Watauga may see some changes to the course catalog for the 2025-2026 school year, specifically regarding the academic elective Creative Writing.

Creative Writing is an English academic elective that has been offered for over seven years with multiple sections in the spring/fall and A/B. Christopher Tarnowski, a Watauga High School English teacher, has taught the class since he arrived at the school. 

“I have enjoyed teaching Creative Writing immensely and had plans to continue improving the curriculum and experiences over the coming years. It's disappointing to discover that this course has been cut down to a single-block class,"  Tarnowski said. "This course enrolls students who are interested in writing and expressing their creative abilities through this medium, and limiting the number of students who can have this experience is the most disappointing part because it’s the students who suffer most."

With this class changing from year-round to block, students may not have access to some of the more long-form skills that the Creative Writing class provides for students when it is offered throughout the year. Creative Writing II had been introduced the previous year, leading students to be evermore disoriented at the implemented changes. While the plan was originally to cut Creative Writing entirely, the English department has worked to ensure it is available in one block. 

Since this class will have limited availability, many students won’t have the opportunity to take an extra step in improving their writing. This class focuses on students’ ability to communicate through their writing which can help students in their English classes as well. Not only will this affect student development but it may also affect class sizes.

“Cutting Creative Writing would have a ripple effect across the entire school community,” Tarnowski said, “This course has enrollment numbers that routinely push past eighty students, and just this year we added Creative Writing II to the course catalog, a class that includes around twenty students. Eliminating these courses would push these existing numbers into other available courses, causing the number of students per class to rise.”

Students coming into course registration may expect to see certain classes that are no longer available, or are limited in their accessibility. When assembling their course schedule, students should pay careful attention to these changes. 

One thing students should also be aware of is that their counselors will try to give them their highest-ranked electives first, so they should prioritize the classes that are most important to them. Electives should be ranked with a student’s first choice at the top and lowest at the bottom.

The 25-26 WHS/WIA Course Registration website can be found here: https://sites.google.com/wataugaschools.org/whswiaregistration/home