District presents proposed 'Flight & Space' elective, seventh-grade 'Design & Discovery' and CTE business law resource
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Summary
District officials presented three curriculum proposals: replace the eighth-grade Energy & Environment elective with Project Lead The Way Flight & Space, convert seventh-grade Study Skills into a semester-long Design & Discovery course, and adopt a new CTE business law resource; board Q&A covered costs, prerequisites and implementation steps.
District instructional leadership presented three proposed course changes at the Dec. 15 meeting and said they will return for board approval in upcoming agendas.
Brian Giovannini, director of innovation and instructional leadership, outlined the proposals: (1) an eighth-grade Project Lead The Way (PLTW) Flight & Space elective to replace the current Energy & the Environment elective; the PLTW offering is project-based and culminates in a mission-planning unit and would require teacher core training and curriculum supplies; (2) change the seventh-grade Study Skills quarter to a semester-long Design & Discovery course with embedded executive-functioning skills, entrepreneurship/design thinking and career awareness; and (3) update the CTE business law curriculum to a Cengage Business Law resource to reduce overlap with a new social-studies law course and provide business-oriented case studies.
Board members asked whether PLTW Flight & Space replaces required science (it does not; it is an elective complementary to science), whether Design & Discovery requires any prerequisites (none), and whether the district will purchase curriculum resources and provide PLTW teacher training (administration said yes and indicated costs for digital resources and training would be brought back for approval). One board member referenced a $35,000 figure when asking about design-discovery curriculum/digital-resource costs; administration said curriculum options and associated training will be brought forward for board approval in the spring and that middle-school course votes are planned for the Jan. 12 agenda.
What’s next: The board will be asked to vote on middle school course changes (including switching to PLTW Flight & Space for eighth grade) at its Jan. 12 meeting; curriculum-resource approvals are expected later in the spring.
