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Littlestown Area SD board reviews new electives; expands high-school course options
Summary
The Littlestown Area SD board reviewed two proposed middle-school electives — History Through Trivia and Gettysburg: Fact and Fiction — and approved several high-school course additions and changes, including college-credit English Composition and an AP Human Geography offering.
Doctor Merriman introduced two proposed middle-school electives at the Littlestown Area SD board meeting: History Through Trivia, a trivia-based approach intended to develop critical-thinking and historical knowledge, and Gettysburg: Fact and Fiction, which examines fictional representations of Gettysburg and will conclude with a trip to Gettysburg and a national park. Doctor Merriman said the Gettysburg course is designed to help students distinguish historical fact from fictional portrayals.
The board asked for enrollment numbers and clearer course descriptions for the first elective, which some trustees worried could be misleading if the title implied only breathing or wellness practices. "I can get numbers for you on that," Doctor Merriman said when asked how many students had signed up. Trustees asked staff to revise any descriptions that could confuse parents and to return enrollment figures to the board.
On high-school offerings, Doctor Merriman highlighted the addition of English Composition 102, a college-credit course taught in partnership with HACC and offered to seniors, with Mr. Heckhart assigned to teach the 102 section next year. "It is a college and high school course," Doctor Merriman said of the HACC-linked class. The board also heard about a new AP Human Geography class intended to introduce freshmen and sophomores to geographic-data analysis and related social-science methods.
Responding to academic needs, the district is proposing a high-school pre-algebra course to build foundational skills for students entering high school, and staff outlined splitting the current fitness-and-strength class into separate cardio and strength-training semester courses for grades 10–12 to allow more personalized instruction and safer capacity management. Trustees and staff discussed staffing and equipment limits; staff noted the split would allow two instructors to manage smaller, safer groups.
Doctor Merriman also described a partnership with Hanover Auto Group that functions as an apprenticeship: students must interview for six available slots; the program draws students from nearby districts including Conewago, Biglerville, Hanover and Southwest. Finally, the board approved renaming and clarifying statistics coursework so that a basic introductory statistics course is distinct from the college-level statistics course taught by Mr. Nance.
The board requested clarified course descriptions and enrollment data where noted; no formal votes on these curriculum changes were recorded in the transcript. The district said staff will return with the requested enrollment figures and any revised course synopses.
