There’s a few new additions, name changes and class restructuring at Austin High School. As soon as next year, only two band sections will be offered instead of three, as well as a new fourth-year math class and other changes.

Varsity Band will be dropped from the course offerings next year, and AHS only has two bands right now.

The primary reason for this is because there isn’t enough instrumentation to make up a full band, which consists of at least 22 parts, according to Brad Anderson, a music teacher at AHS.

Concert Band and Wind Ensemble will still be offered, and school officials are hopeful a third band will be added in the future.

“As we look at the numbers in the lower level (of the district’s music programs), we see that those numbers are coming back up,” said AHS Principal Bradley Bergstrom.

A new math class will replace AHS’s Statistics course. The high school math faculty recommended a College Level Algebra Prep course be added to the curriculum, Bergstrom said during a school board meeting Monday. This new class will cover college-level Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry and Statistics. Students who want to take Statistics by itself will be moved up to the AP Statistics course.

School staff hopes this new math class will attract more high school seniors, as more and more students are electing not to pursue a fourth-year math class.