Board debates adding financial literacy as a local graduation requirement; staff tasked with developing plan

The board considered first-read changes to the district’s graduation policy, including reducing elective units from 7.5 to 5.5 and identifying two local electives the board will designate.

Amanda Gallegos Ortiz presented the proposed redline to the policy packet and described the change as replacing a set number of electives with two board-selected local electives. Board members pressed on whether financial literacy should be one of those local requirements and how it would work across the district’s three high schools (Grants High School, Laguna Acoma, and Early College). The deputy superintendent noted financial-literacy instruction currently exists in different places: in math, economics and other pathways. Board members raised scheduling and staffing questions, including how drivers education — described in discussion as a longstanding local requirement in some schools — would be handled if the policy were changed.

Superintendent Weidner proposed the instructional team and Amanda Gallegos Ortiz return with a plan for where financial literacy should reside and which two local electives to designate; he set a short timeline (two weeks in the transcript) and asked the instructional team to coordinate with principals and counselors. ‘‘We’ll come back with a plan for how that graduation requirement should look, including financial literacy and clarifying which two locals should be there,’’ he said. The board did not adopt final language at this meeting (first reading/discussion only).