Berkeley County Schools details secondary scheduling, graduation requirements and expansion of CTE courses

Berkeley County Schools staff presented an overview of secondary master scheduling, graduation requirements and planned growth of career and technical education during a board meeting. Leaders explained how course requests and staffing drives the master schedule, outlined credit requirements for graduation, and described new and expanded CTE offerings and staffing approaches that the district plans to pilot next year.

The presentation said high school students in Berkeley County must complete 24 credits under current rules: 12 in the four primary content areas (math, English, science and social studies), 10 in “personally prescribed” classes (college- or workforce-oriented choices), and two elective credits. The district expects to add a year-long personal finance course within the next academic year, which will raise the total required credits to 25. Staff also described typical staffing triggers used when building schedules: principals generally request an additional teacher for a subject when average section size reaches about 28 students, and singleton (one-period) elective courses usually require about 10 students to be offered.

District staff said middle school students are scheduled to receive English (split…