Saratoga News
News
Freshmen taking advanced math, science, foreign languages at Los Gatos, Saratoga
By Michele Tjin
This year's freshman classes at Saratoga and Los Gatos high schools are showing an appetite for advanced math, science and world languages.
At the Oct. 2 board meeting of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District, trustees received a report about the types of classes that freshmen at both high schools are taking. This year, there is a slight increase in freshmen taking geometry or higher math, biology and a foreign language in their first year, said Kevin Mount, the district's director of educational services.
While Mount has only two years' worth of data and is not ready to declare a trend, he said the numbers give an optimistic picture.
"This shows students are prepared, motivated and ready to learn, and expectations continue to rise," he said.
This fall, 49 percent of the freshmen in the district are taking at least geometry, as compared to 46 percent last year. Also, 50 percent of the ninth-graders are enrolled in biology (44 percent last year), and 81 percent of the freshmen are taking a world language (79 percent last year).
On the flip side, the number of freshmen taking fine arts classes went down, Mount said, though other electives such as introduction to business and digital web graphics at Saratoga saw a boost in students.
Mount said he wondered if students have less time for classes in fine arts.
"We need to pay attention to how enrollment trends affect fine arts and electives," he said.
In other board news, the trustees denied a proposal that would bring residents living near Wedgewood Avenue in Los Gatos into the high school district. The homes along Mulberry, La Rinconada and Lora drives, Brown's Lane and Wedgewood Avenue currently belong in the Campbell Union and Campbell Union High School districts.
