May 12, 2025 at 7:30 PM - Curriculum Committee Meeting

Description:  This is a meeting of the Board of Education in public for the purpose of conducting the School District's business and is not to be considered a public community meeting.

Description: 

A board member has requested reconsideration of the decision to optionally offer Pre-AP coursework for 9th-grade students and AP Seminar for 10th-grade students beginning in the 2025-2026 school year. These courses are grounded in national research and best practices that support early access to rigorous academic experiences. Studies by the College Board and other academic institutions have shown that students who participate in Pre-AP and AP Capstone programs demonstrate improved critical thinking, stronger writing skills, and higher college readiness indicators. Pre-AP courses are designed to prepare a broader, more diverse student population for success in AP and college-level coursework, while AP Seminar—part of the AP Capstone program—fosters interdisciplinary research, collaboration, and argumentation, all skills highly valued in both postsecondary education and the workforce.

Per Board Policy 2210 - Curriculum Development, the district maintains a Curriculum Committee charged with coordinating curriculum development. However, this committee is composed primarily of classroom teachers and department leaders, and its purpose is to provide internal instructional alignment and professional feedback—not to determine which elective courses or advanced academic offerings are made available to students. Because this decision pertains to optional academic pathways rather than required curriculum, it falls most appropriately under the authority of the building principal, Dan Foster, and the Superintendent, Dr. Luke Francois.