At the Jan. 9 meeting of the Rockville Centre Board of Education, Superintendent Gavin presented proposed course and curricular changes the district would seek to offer in 2025–26, emphasizing pathways to industry credentials and to college‑level experiences.

Gavin described a half‑year Financial Investments course that would expand the district’s personal‑finance offerings and offer students the option to visit Molloy College’s Bloomberg lab about six times during that half‑year for Bloomberg certification. He said students could take the class without pursuing Bloomberg certification and that the district would rotate visits to avoid repeated class absences. Gavin noted that bringing a full Bloomberg lab in‑house is expensive and cited other districts’ Bloomberg lab costs as an example of significant investment.

He also proposed a new Computational Engineering course, a half‑year offering developed in response to a student request, to be taught with support from a physics teacher and to include four visits to Hofstra University’s science and innovation facilities. Gavin said the course would teach numerical methods and introduce MATLAB; students would be prepared for college engineering work. He said computational engineering would most likely serve juniors and seniors and that Algebra II was the typical math background expected but not a strict prerequisite.

Other proposals included AP Human Geography offered primarily to ninth graders; an AP cybersecurity pilot (year 1) with a planned second year to lead to industry credentials, and an expanded arts and business set of electives including Unified Theater, IB Dance, sports marketing, fashion marketing and middle‑school fashion design. Gavin said the AP cybersecurity pathway could lead to an industry credential (CompTIA) that would enable students to enter the workforce with recognized certification. He said the district had applied for AP Cyber and had local staff (including the high school’s computer science teacher) ready to run the program.

Gavin told the board the district does not expect to add teaching positions solely for these proposals next year and that the main budget implications would be added transportation costs for college visits. Enrollment thresholds varied by course: computational engineering could run with as few as seven students in some years, while high‑demand electives such as fashion design at the middle school could draw 40–60 students. The superintendent said administrators will co‑seat low‑enrollment sections where appropriate and monitor demand in the coming course‑selection cycle.

Board members generally praised the breadth of options and asked for more parent outreach and writing supports to help students transition to higher‑level courses. Trustees requested clearer scheduling presentations for families (especially for the middle‑to‑high‑school pathway), and asked guidance counselors to advise students on prerequisites and workload. Gavin said detailed course descriptions and communications would be emailed to families if the proposals are approved and that the district will include course offerings in the budget process where needed.

Why it matters: The proposals expand career and college pathways available within the Rockville Centre district, add industry‑recognized credentials and create new partnerships with local colleges that may improve college and career readiness for students who choose those tracks.