(Posted Feb. 12, 2020)
By Josephine Birdsell, Staff Writer
The London school board is looking to approve updates to several middle school and high school courses.
On Feb. 11, the board considered a proposal to add 41 new courses to the curriculum at the high school and retire 18 older courses.
The board also considered a proposal to replace the middle school’s participation in Power of the Pen, a creative writing competition, with Battle of the Books, a competitive reading competition. Also possible at the middle school are the addition of three lab activities and retirement of one lab activity.
The board will vote on the changes at their next meeting on March 10.
Board members are excited about updates.
“At the high school, we’ve really looked at how we’re presenting our arts program. So, (we’re adding) a little bit more detail in some different mediums, which we’re excited about,” said Dr. Lou Kramer, district superintendent.
Proposed for the high school are 12 new English and language arts courses, 12 agriculture, business and technology courses, 10 math courses, five STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) courses, one science course and one psychology course.
On the chopping block at the high school are four standard literature courses–two at the high school level and two at the college level–as well as two advanced placement math courses, two financial literacy courses, one health course and one STEM course.
The core subject areas at both schools will remain the same, and no changes in funding for any subject areas are prescribed in the course guidelines.
“It’s reallocating our resources that we currently have,” Kramer said.
