The Bedford School Committee voted unanimously to approve revisions to the Bedford High School (BHS) program of studies for the 2025–26 school year, endorsing a range of new minors and elective courses, expanded AP and computer-science offerings, and a pilot of additional world-language independent-study courses funded by a Department of Defense grant.

The committee approved the changes after a presentation by BHS Principal Heather Galanti and Assistant Principal Maren O'Grady, who described the revisions as largely technical but noted several substantive additions intended to increase student choice. "We at Bedford High School are really committed to meeting the student needs in front of us," Galanti said during the presentation.

The changes include a correction to the weighted-grade-point-average reporting (reflecting a 4.9 top weighted GPA rather than 5.0 under current course offerings), moving MCAS-focused math and literacy support into the Academic Achievement Center (AAC) rather than eliminating those supports, and several new minors and electives across departments. "Math essentials, writing essentials, and targeted reading are being offered through the Academic Achievement Center," Galanti said, noting the shift is intended to emphasize skill building rather than test preparation.

New and revised course offerings described to the committee include: a mentor/teaching-assistant program offered as both a major and a minor; a JROTC internship-type minor providing leadership experience; Sculpture 2 in the art department; two levels of forensic science (honors and college-prep); a financial-literacy minor in the math/business program; and three English minors—Exploring Mystery and True Crime, Public Speaking, and a student-directed Creative Writing elective.

The computer-science program was reorganized with rewritten course descriptions to offer Computer Science Foundations (introductory) and Computer Science Explorations (honors), in addition to continuing AP Computer Science A and adding AP Computer Science Principles. Science course changes reflect the College Board's split of the AP Physics exam into AP Physics: Mechanics and AP Physics: Electricity & Magnetism; BHS will offer both AP physics courses aligned to those exams.

Galanti and O'Grady described a Department of Defense-funded pilot to expand world-language access using a language lab and software. The presentation listed four additional languages to be offered as independent-study minors in the pilot year: Chinese, German, Italian and Russian. Presenters characterized the coming year as a planning/pilot year but did not provide a single consistent statement in the meeting materials about the total term length of the grant; meeting presenters described a planning year but gave differing references to total grant duration in discussion materials.

Administrators emphasized the schedule and staffing constraints guiding the updates: the changes were designed to require no additional full-time equivalents (FTEs) and to support the district’s goal of distributing student schedules by the first week of June. Program administrators and department leads—including Patrick Morrissey (math), Nicole Prince (science), Kelsey McCarthy (ELA), Kristen Tracy (Academic Achievement Center), and Adam Bailey (world language)—were cited as contributors and available to answer detailed questions.

Student representative Vivian and committee members asked about prerequisites, articulation with middle-school offerings (including code.org for computer-science placement), capacity for AP and elective sections, and how the district will certify local competency in place of MCAS as a graduation requirement. Superintendent Chuang and staff said the district will still administer MCAS as a data point tied to Massachusetts state frameworks but that MCAS will no longer be a state graduation requirement; the district expects to present local competency-determination standards for school-committee consideration in upcoming meetings.

After discussion and questions, the committee approved the proposed revisions by roll call vote, 5–0. The approved motion read: "The school committee approves the proposed revisions to the BHS program of studies for the 2025, 2026, year as presented." The vote tally recorded Angel (yes), Brad (yes), Sarah Scoville (yes), Sarah McGinley (yes) and Amy (yes).

Committee members and administrators said the approved revisions are intended to broaden student options, meet student interest identified by surveys and school-council input, and maintain programming without new staff hires. The committee directed staff to proceed with implementation and to return with required follow-up materials when local competency-determination language and final scheduling details are available.