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Board gives Aurora School provisional approval to use alternate curriculum pending state review
Summary
After debate about whether an Aurora School alternate curriculum fully meets statutory requirements, the board provisionally authorized the superintendent to grant preliminary approval for Aurora to use the proposed curriculum, subject to further review and guidance from the West Virginia Department of Education.
The Preston County Board of Education voted to provisionally allow Aurora School to use a proposed alternate curriculum in place of the state-recommended Cyber SWAT program, while staff pursue clarification from the West Virginia Department of Education about statutory content requirements. The board’s action authorizes the superintendent to provide provisional approval to Aurora and to continue follow-up review; the motion passed by voice vote 5–0.
Discussion centered on whether the Aurora curriculum covers all concepts required by the legislation within a single academic year or whether the content could be staged across multiple years. A board member said the state program should be recommended unless a local curriculum team proposes an alternative that meets standards, and another member raised concerns about students who move between districts and might miss required instruction if content is spread over multiple years.
Superintendent and curriculum staff said they had reviewed materials provided by Aurora’s curriculum team and that most required concepts appeared to be addressed, but a few items needed clarification. The board agreed that, for the current year, granting Aurora provisional approval and obtaining formal guidance from the state was the appropriate path; future requests from other schools would follow the same curriculum-team review process.
The board also discussed whether an approved alternate should be made available countywide; staff said any school seeking to adopt an alternate should follow the same review and approval process. The superintendent said he would follow up with state officials and report back to the board.
