The Astronomy science elective class will not be offered as a choice to students for the next academic school year for the second time in eleven years. The decision to discontinue Astronomy next year was because the course enrollment was too low to merit the continuation of the class for the next school year.

“[Administration] has criteria. I think it’s not explicitly stated, but most of the time I would say if we’re at at least 15 students enrolled, the course has a good chance of running. That’s kind of what I’ve seen over the past 11 years. When you start to look at 10 and under, you run a risk,” Director of the Science Department, Dr. Ami LeFevre said.

This year during meetings with counselors, 10 students enrolled to take the class during the 2025-26 school year, and as a result, the class will not be running next year.

For the majority of classes that do not run, there are few significant effects on allocation of resources beyond teacher salaries. However, in the case of Astronomy, this reaches beyond the teacher’s salary. The Astronomy class, along with the club, make frequent use of the school observatory, located in the south lot.

“Our observatory is probably one of the best high school observatories in the region, if not the country. It’s basically second to Northwestern, in terms of what we have in the area, so it is an incredible resource,” Astronomy teacher and Astronomy Club sponsor, Anthony Comstock said.

Although Astronomy Club will still use it, and the science department is attempting to work it into some other physics curriculums, this is a resource with a potential that will be largely untapped, according to LeFevre.

However, the resources allocated for this class are neither redirected nor displaced.

“Instructional resources do not go away; it is not uncommon for a course to be rebuilt during a year it is not running.  Teachers who taught the course would be assigned to teach a different course (typically one they have already taught) for the upcoming school year,” Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Christine Gonzalez said.

In the past years, due to the comparatively high level of astronomical activity, school-wide interest reaching beyond the club and the classroom has been high.

“When we took our telescope to the homecoming game in the fall, we had over 400 people look through the scope at the moon, and the reviews were that people absolutely loved it, so its on us and the Astronomy Club to figure out how we can provide the Niles West and D219 communities with cool astronomy experiences,” Comstock said.

With Comstock in his first year teaching Astronomy, it has been a learning process for both him and the students alike. Working together to maximize learning and improve curriculum for future classes has been a goal of theirs all year, so students are disappointed that the class will not continue next year.

“It’s definitely a setback, but in my mind, it’s not over. I feel that although the class won’t run next year, there’s definitely an option and a possibility for it to run in future years if it’s brought back” Astronomy student, Tristan Van Stan said.