Seven new courses are headed to the York County School Division after a vote at Monday night’s school board meeting.
Each year, the division updates its Program of Studies, a list of courses — new, old and revised — offered within the division. This year’s Program of Studies shows YCSD adding seven new courses:
- Advanced Course Experience: a preparatory class aimed at middle schoolers for rigorous courses like those found in the Advanced Placement program
- Student Technology Leadership Corps: a high school course that teaches a select group of students about technology through providing IT support to YCSD staff
- Introduction to Programming & Game Design: an introduction to the development of online games, audio, animation and graphics for seventh- and eighth-graders
- Two Latin courses: One of these classes is for 10th-graders and one is for 11th-graders — both are related to the International Baccalaureate Program’s classical language credit
- MYP Design: a requirement for the Middle Years Programme, an International Baccalaureate program for middle-schoolers
- Electricity and Renewable Energy: a class in which students at New Horizons Regional Education Center can learn the basic skills used by electrician
Advanced Course Experience is set to cost the division $2,000 with $1,400 going toward materials and $600 allotted for writing the curriculum. Student Technology Leadership Corps will cost $1,200 with the cost split in half — $600 for materials and $600 for curriculum writing.
The game design course would cost the division $770 to write the curriculum and provide training to substitutes, and the MYP Design Course would cost the division $300 for curriculum writing. No other costs would be associated with those two courses.
In November, the advanced course preparatory course underwent a name-change and a change to who it targeted. The course was originally slated to be named “AP Experience” and target only advanced students planning to take Advanced Placement classes.
The idea did not receive a warm welcome among school board members, who said that all students could benefit from the course and suggested a name change. Since then, the academic office decided to call the course “Advanced Course Experience” and allow non-advanced students to take the course.
With a 5-0 vote, the Program of Studies passed Monday night. The new courses will be implemented next school year.
