Various changes are being made to this year’s course catalog for Palo Alto High School, which is scheduled to be distributed in January.

Principal Phil Winston is working to make these changes, which include the addition of homework amounts to class descriptions, in an effort to help students make more informed decisions about the courses they sign up for.

“We are going through it,” Winston said. “We are clarifying language about courses and what to expect on certain courses.”

According to Winston, a key instrument in the plan will be the ability for students to see the approximate amount of homework in their potential classes.

“It’s going to give [students] a much better idea of what [they’re] getting into,” Winston said. “Because sometimes they don’t know and we [administrators] don’t either.”

Staff members will help make this information available.

“Every department by January is going to produce a list of all the classes they offer and the average weekly homework including projects and other things,” Winston said. “It will vary by department, of course, but the cool thing is it will help us build some consistency.”

There are other possible changes to the course catalog, including the addition of a handful of classes.  However, nothing is set in stone, according to Winston.

“Nothing has been added at this point because there is a process to go through,” Winston said.  “If some of those classes can get through the process by January, before the catalog goes live, we will consider adding them.”

The potential classes that would be added include a Comedy Literature class as an English elective, and a Computer and Mobile Apps class as an elective.

However, the main objective for the course catalog that Winston emphasized is to help students make more informed decisions.

“We’re going to try to get it done in January,” Winston said.  “That’s our goal.”