Berwick Area SD outlines CTE revamp, new financial-literacy and medical-science tracks
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Summary
Cheyenne Pingle told the school board the district will rename and restructure several career and technical education (CTE) offerings, add a financial-literacy course to meet a state requirement and create an innovation lab and a medical-sciences pathway tied to industry partners and a grant-funded pre-apprenticeship.
Cheyenne Pingle, who led the curriculum presentation, told the Berwick Area School District board the district has reworked course names and program structures to better reflect student pathways and employer needs. "So we're just here to briefly go over some of the course changes that we've come up with for this school year," she said, and described several changes intended to make course titles and content clearer to students and families.
Pingle said the district will rename multimedia offerings to more accurately reflect class activities, convert a "practical math" class into a financial-literacy course to comply with a state requirement that students take financial-literacy instruction, and restructure the freshman experience from four quarter-credit classes into two half-credit classes to improve scheduling flexibility. She added the district plans to offer a half-credit course in Japanese culture to introduce students to the language and expand access to elective fine-arts courses.
The presentation also described an "innovation lab" staffed by four teachers—business, CAD/engineering, technical/industrial tech and computer science—that will support students interested in engineering and advanced manufacturing. Pingle said the district is piloting a pre-apprenticeship with Penn College (PennTech) that is grant-funded and could lead to further industry placements. "It's all grant funded where it would be a robotics," Pingle said, and noted local industry partners are involved in providing real-world experiences.
Why it matters: The changes are intended to expand career pathways and make scheduling more accessible to underclassmen, while aligning course titles with content so students better understand the skills taught. The financial-literacy requirement alters when some students will take mathematics-related electives; administrators said the plan aims to accommodate students pursuing dual-enrollment or other advanced coursework.
Board members asked clarifying questions about when the financial-literacy course would be offered; Pingle said the district expects to place it in junior year but noted statutory flexibility allows the course to be taken in any grade from ninth through twelfth. The district will publish the course-selection guide for board approval at the next meeting and begin outreach to students once the guide is finalized.
The board did not take action during the presentation; the item was informational and will be included in the formal course-selection documents distributed to families and staff.