![Wayland Historical Society Executive Director Scarlett Hoey explains the history of the Cochituate Gatehouse.
"The exterior is still a nice monument to remember buildings [involved in] water history," Hoey said. "We all drink lots of water, and it's such an important resource that we kind of take for granted nowadays."](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IMG_2024-1200x800.jpg)
Course selection in the spring of 2026 will feature several new changes, including an early opening for class recommendations and choosing classes, an earlier schedule release, course alterations due to the large incoming freshman Class of 2030 and a new elective-based wellness system.
Earlier opening for recommendations and selection
This year, the counseling department is starting the course selection process a few weeks earlier compared to previous years. The counselors began doing recommendations and selections early in hopes to release next year’s schedules to students early. The early schedule release would allow the counseling department and students more time to resolve any conflicts in students’ schedules.
Last year, students received their schedules in late August, right before school started. According to counseling department head Benjamin Buffa, the counseling department plans to release student schedules by June. However, the earlier schedule release is tentative.
Students must submit their course preferences by Friday, March 20, at 8:00 a.m..
Wellness electives
Starting next year, instead of pre-chosen wellness courses, students will be able to select their own classes for each quarter. Students can choose from a variety of wellness classes involving both physical activity or classroom choices. These include sports psychology, outdoor sports, mat fitness, self defense and more. According to wellness director Scott Parseghian, this change was made because students were falling behind on wellness due to level changes in other classes.
“If you dropped down a level [in another class], you might not finish health two, and you might be getting sports for a second time or fitness for a second time,” Parseghian said. “Kids were either missing a chunk of our lessons or missing a whole unit entirely.”
According to Parseghian, the new format will require classes that have to be completed by the end of sophomore year. These classes are Health One and Two, Intro to Fitness and Project Adventure. Starting junior year, students will be able to start choosing their wellness courses.
In order to graduate, students need to select four quarters of wellness classes that they will complete over the course of junior and senior year. It is required to take at least one semester of wellness in both junior and senior year, so it is not possible to take all four quarters in one year. The only required course during junior and senior year is Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP).
Large incoming freshman class
Next year’s freshman class (the Class of 2030) will be the largest class at WHS, with 256 students enrolled as of 2025. Overall, next year’s enrollment is expected to be about an 8% increase in student population, with 852 students next year, compared to 792 this year. According to Buffa, the counseling department is waiting on course selection from the Class of 2030 before making decisions if there will be any classes cut for next year.
Due to the larger freshman class, some teachers may need to switch the courses they teach in order to ensure that all core classes will be held. This may cause some electives, previously taught by those teachers, to not run. As of now, game development will not run next year.
Low interest in an elective is another reason that a course may not run. The counseling department will receive a gauge of interest for each elective from teachers and then decide if the course will be able to take place.
