For about 15-years now. it's nothing new. We were able to deal with it by letting the 6th and 7th graders have two electives. That was until this year when they decided that one was enough. We literally had the beginner band numbers cut in half and lost a good chunk of 7th graders. The same thing is happening next year. There is no solution other than a) getting more elective spots in the schedule or b) convincing the district to get rid of CTE classes in 6th and 7th grade. You could wait it out until the coding and robotics classes become obsolete because AI will start doing those real-world jobs as well, but by that time the robot uprising will be in full force. All these kids in robotics classes are going to be are glorified mechanics for our mechanical overlords.

But, in all seriousness, I can't compete with the robotics and coding teachers who lets the kids play games, gives them days off, and let's them drink energy drinks and eat Takis. We even have kids dropping athletics for CTE classes.