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Secondary curriculum council approves AP Macroeconomics, soccer PE and a game-design CTE pathway for board consideration
Summary
The district secondary curriculum advisory council approved AP Macroeconomics, a soccer-themed PE course, an Intro to Game Design CTE course and recommended the memoir Born a Crime for classroom use; items will come to the board for final adoption.
The San Rafael City Schools Secondary Curriculum Advisory Council voted to approve several new course proposals and a novel recommendation that will be presented to the board for final approval in a subsequent meeting.
Michelle Harland, district coordinator for secondary instruction, and Lauren Inman, assistant principal at Terra Linda High School, summarized council action. The items the council approved for possible implementation in 2025–26 are:
- AP Macroeconomics: a semester-long, 12th-grade Advanced Placement economics course aligned to College Board AP expectations; students may choose AP macroeconomics in place of or in addition to current economics/financial-literacy options. The district will provide the College Board course description and unit breakdown to the board before final approval.
- Soccer-themed year-long PE course: a full-year physical-education option framed around soccer, with standard PE learning outcomes taught through sport-specific activities.
- Intro to Game Design (capstone to follow): a proposed CTE concentrator course focused on game-building fundamentals; the program would form a Game Design Academy once a capstone/AP computer science–aligned course is added and approved.
- Born a Crime (Trevor Noah): the council recommended adding this memoir as a potential classroom novel; curriculum staff said they will confirm whether the board will adopt the original adult memoir or a Young Adult edition and will provide that detail with the packet when the item returns for board action.
Council membership and process
Ms. Harland and Ms. Inman described the council as a standing body composed of teacher and administrator representatives from each site, counselors and at least one parent and classified staff member; it follows Robert's Rules for voting and requires a two-thirds council majority to forward items to the board for final adoption. Approved items become available to both comprehensive high schools but still must fit each school's master schedule and rely on available credentialed staff.
Trustees asked clarifying questions about the AP Macroeconomics scope (social/economic policy versus quantitative data analysis) and about the edition of Born a Crime to be used; curriculum staff offered to circulate the College Board course description and the council's full notes ahead of the next board meeting.
Ending
Curriculum staff said the items will return to the board at a future meeting (consent or first reading as appropriate) with supporting descriptions, unit plans and, where applicable, the exact text edition for novel adoptions.
