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Souderton Area SD committee backs new high-school courses and a Spanish-course rename
Summary
At a committee meeting, district educators presented a plan to rename an implemented Heritage Spanish course as Advanced Spanish for 11th–12th graders and proposed two new high-school courses — a Unity-based Game Design class and an Alternative Materials visual-arts course — with unanimous board support to move forward to enrollment and budget review.
Dr. Kennedy Riley told the Souderton Area SD committee the district will rename the existing Heritage Spanish course to Advanced Spanish for 11th and 12th graders while writing a new Heritage Spanish course for 9th and 10th graders to return later for program-of-studies approval. “We would like to, rename heritage Spanish for advanced Spanish,” she said during the curriculum segment.
The move is intended to align course titles with college admissions expectations and simplify student registration for the 2026–27 school year. Board members asked whether current students would keep their credit and what timing the rename would take; administration said the change would apply to students enrolling for 2026–27 and current students would finish under existing coding.
In the same block of presentations, technology-education teachers proposed a one-semester Game Design course built around the Unity engine. Presenters said Unity provides a free education license for schools and aligns the course with industry certification pathways so capable students could sit a Level 1 art-and-design certification exam independently. Phil (presenter) noted the course would intentionally be accessible: "the Unity manual is an electronic manual and comes in 770 different languages," and the teacher added the class would touch math and computer-science concepts without requiring advanced math.
Visual-arts teachers Sean Redmond and Lauren Bauer outlined an Alternative Materials course emphasizing craft and material processes — papermaking, weaving, punch-needling, rug tufting, stained glass and small-scale metalworking — aimed at extending art access to students of varying skill levels. The presenters requested $9,313 for consumable and reusable materials; administration confirmed that cost was already built into the district’s preliminary budget and that the course would be offered in marking-period sections.
Board members and the public asked about enrollment expectations, student costs, and how the new courses would interact with existing programs. Teachers and administrators emphasized accessibility and cross-curricular opportunities, and the committee indicated full support to advance the items through normal program-of-studies and budget processes. The district said formal approvals and any catalogue updates will follow in upcoming action meetings.
