As a school, Westminster pays a lot of attention to its academics. It is constantly adding to that program and improving it year to year.
“The science department is adding new engineering classes each year for the STEM students. This means new equipment and new teachers. That requires a lot of money,” said Andrew Shaw, science department chair.
In the past year, WCA has added the STEM program to its curriculum, which requires adding new classes and hiring new teachers each year. This requires a large financial commitment from the school.
There are also the after-school clubs and other activities to consider. The clubs at Westminster range from taekwondo to movie club, and a large majority are either dedicated to the arts of athletics.
“We could do a better job of providing extra-curricular activities for scholars,” said Jacob Mohler, math department chair.
“I think it’d be good to have a project that a group of students could work on throughout the year.”
Though the Robotics team does this, Mohler would like to see after school projects related to subjects other than science.
While there are extra curricular activites for academics, these events receive less attention than sporting events and plays.
“Last year, FRC made it to Worlds. We all were really excited, but only 5 people outside of the team showed up. That was really disappointing,” said Amber Terlouw, sophomore.
While a regular football game has many students attending, few show up at these academic related competitions.
The opinions on what Westminster focuses on the most–arts, athletics, or academics–are split. Some teachers believe it balances out overall, while others think it definitely values one over the other.
“The school focuses on different areas during different periods of time. They can’t focus on everything equally all the time. So, while it may seem that the emphasis is on science or sports or theater at one time, overall, I think it ends up balancing out,” said Shaw.
Some disagree with this opinion, and say the school definitely values academics the most.
“Academics is most important to Westminster, but we don’t want to be a school just for academically gifted students. We want artistic and athletic students to flourish here, too. But we’re a school, so of course most of the money goes to academics,” said Scott Holley, Academic Dean.
Even students believe the focus is split
“The attention is split with both students and teachers. Some of the teachers seem to focus more on the athletic announcements, and it’s obvious that some kids don’t care about the academic stuff. But FRC and JETS isn’t possible without the students, and some teachers are really enthusiastic about those clubs,” said Terlouw.
