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Board adopts updated graduation requirements; members discuss adding personal finance and career readiness options
Summary
The board adopted a revised graduation policy that will apply to incoming ninth graders and discussed local regulation choices including a two‑credit option focusing on personal and business finance and a possible career‑readiness elective.
Alamogordo — The Alamogordo Public Schools Board of Education voted to adopt updated graduation requirements and spent the following discussion considering which local elective credits should be specified in district regulation for students entering ninth grade next year.
Interim Superintendent Crabtree and high‑school staff presented the updated policy language and said the changes were intended to move dated 2019 language into current board policy while allowing future changes to be made in regulation rather than the policy itself. The board voted to adopt the updated policy (board policy I‑7350) and then discussed regulation options to implement the requirements for the freshman cohort.
Consultants and counselors described a proposed two‑credit pathway that would include a personal and business finance sequence. Several board members supported including personal financial literacy, arguing students benefit from practical budgeting and credit education. One member said, “Everybody needs to have financial planning skills ... how to succeed, make a budget, plan for their future, save, understand credit scores.”
Board members and staff noted constraints and unintended consequences if a required course were to replace math or other college‑admissions prerequisites. Interim Superintendent Crabtree and the counseling team cautioned that certain colleges and athletic‑eligibility rules (NCAA/NAIA) require specific math sequences; the district will ensure that mandated electives would not prevent advanced students from meeting those requirements.
The board did not finalize implementing regulations at the meeting; members asked administration and counselors to draft regulation language for March, with a goal of finalizing elective choices in time for master‑schedule planning. The policy will take effect for students who become ninth graders next school year.
