Curriculum Council Minutes: February 9, 2005

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Members present: The minute taker forgot to make an accurate list.
Slackers rejoice.
Reminder of Important Dates
See your calendars.

Social Studies

• Proposal to Change Graduation Requirement
• SS dept. proposed that the current 3 credit requirement graduation
  requirement for their dept. be made more specific to require that
  students pass the following:
• * 2 credits of SLC social studies courses (Global Studies,
  American Studies)
• * .5 credits of American Goverment or 1 credit of AP US
  History
• They want to do this to make sure that all students have a grasp of
  basic core concepts upon graduation, not just 3 credits of random
  social studies courses they took after failing the basics.
• Concerns were raised as to how this would affect other areas. Rachel
  Carson may be especially vulnerable to losing some students who only
  take certain RC classes because they also fulfill social studies
  credits, not because the students are completely committed to Rachel
  Carson.
• The vote was put off at first, then later taken and passed after Rachel
  Carson withheld any objections, with the understanding that social
  studies would work with them to minimize any impact there might be.

Math Proposal to Add a "Pre-Skills" Class

• Math dept. proposed offering 3 sections of Entry Level Elements that
  would meet for one period on red days and one period on blue days.
  Their intent is to catch students up quickly with intense remedial work
  so that these students can then continue into a second semester Algebra
  class that would meet on both red and blue days. This would help
  students be ready for their CIM and other higher level math classes.
• Concerns raised included:
  1) how to schedule these classes given that SLC's take blocks
  of two periods, therefore limiting the possibilities of when this type
  of red/blue day schedule could be offered,
  2) that this would most likely mean the math dept. would need
  more FTE to cover extra classes offered, probably enough FTE to cover 2
  classes.
• The proposal was voted on and approved with the understanding that the
  specifics need to be explored and the FTE may not be there to implement
  this proposal.

English Dept.

• asked if Special Ed classes mixed with social studies and
  Enlish will continue. They will meet with Dennis and the admin team to
  plan.

Respectfully submitted by Mike Stasack.

Ciao!