Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to
the December 13th
Curriculum Council meeting.
I'd like to call the meeting to order and we'll start today
with just a simple roll call, beginning with the members
who are present in the room, and then we'll move to the members on Zoom.
So I'll just start.
Dr. Shuman I'm assistant to the superintendent
for Curriculum Instruction and Assessment, and we'll just go around the room.
Mike Rizzo, School Board Director.
Kathy Seger. School Board.
Donna Cronin School Board.
Kip Shore School Board.
Okay.
And then I think probably the easiest way
to get the participants on Zoom as I just go through the list
and when I say your name, if you could just say hello, who you are and your role.
So we will start with this is Gabel
and are you there?
Dr. Schmidt She had to take a parent phone call quick.
Okay, Thank you.
Next on the list would be Barb Clouser.
Good afternoon and Barb Clouser.
I'm a Spanish teacher at the high school and the World Language Department chair.
Next is Mr.
Valentin.
Good afternoon.
I'm Eric Downs in the middle school principal.
Next is Geoffrey Smith.
Hello, everyone.
Geoff Smith, my principal Mercy High School.
Next step would be Jenna Funk.
Everyone.
Jenna Funk, K-5 Elementary Principal Steve.
Next would be Jessica and Jerry.
I am just contrary on the high school health because that teacher.
And next, we have Lauren Doyle.
Hello.
I am Lauren Doyle.
I am one of the high school counselors.
We next.
Lindsey Coe.
Hi, I'm Lindsey Cook.
I am a citizen advisor.
Our next step is Lindsey Schmidt.
Hi, I'm Lindsey Schmidt, one of the assistant
principals at the high school.
Next, we have Michelle O'Brien.
I always forget to unmute.
I apologize. Haven't you zoom in a while?
I'm Michelle O'Brien and I am an English teacher
at Hershey High School.
Thank you.
Next would be Samantha Gray.
Hello, I'm Sam Gray.
I am the gifted support teacher at the high school.
Next is Cherie Taylor Stuckey.
Hi, I'm Cherie Stuckey.
I'm an English teacher at the High school and also the English department
chair.
Next is Mr.
Scott Stein.
Hello, I'm Scott Stein.
I am a business teacher at the high school.
And next we have Son Mullins.
High Son Mullins, US Citizen Advisor.
Thank you. And I believe that's everybody.
If I missed anyone. Feel free to speak up.
So we get you on the list.
But I think that was everyone.
It was on Zoom and who is currently in the room. So
at this point we'll move on with our agenda.
The summary notes from the last meeting are listed there on the agenda
and for today's meeting, we don't have any informational items
and we don't have any items for discussion.
We do have several items under new business.
We actually have, for
either course, proposals or changes for courses
at the high school proposed for next school year.
And just I want to remind everyone
of how this process works before we get into this.
When we get to go through each of the courses,
we'll have the teacher who submitted the proposal go through it
with the committee and just share the rationale
and the reasoning behind it and some of the details related to the course.
And then we'll have an opportunity for questions and discussion.
And then after that, I will ask for a motion to move
this proposal on in the process to a first read.
And the only one who can make a motion
is board members.
But everyone then gets to vote on the motion.
Everybody who's a member of the committee will be able to vote.
But in terms of motions that will come from board members and at that point,
if proposals are approved to move on in the process,
they go into what's called a first read stage
where they will stay on the curriculum council agenda for the next meeting
and be able to be reviewed for 30 days before we bring them to the
to the meeting again under old business next time.
And at that point, if they are approved, they will move on to the full board
for consideration.
And so that's kind of the process that we're going to work through tonight.
It is at this time of year.
This is basically about a two month process
and that's why you see these proposals being on the agenda at this point,
because they have to get into the academic planning guide in the high school
in time for the kids to select them if we approve them for next school year.
And that whole process starts in February.
So it's normal to see a series of new courses
or course changes coming through the curriculum council at this point.
So that being said,
I believe we'll move to our first course proposal.
So it's for a new class at the high school called Modern Innovation.
And Mrs.
Samantha Gray is going to talk to us a little bit about her proposal.
So, Sam, it's all yours.
I just want to start off
and say thank you for giving me the opportunity to
give this proposal.
So as I previously said, I am the gifted support teacher at the high school
and something that I have noticed in my few months that I've been here
is that we don't have as many electives
open to students who are identified as gifted,
but also somewhat nontraditional,
somewhat non academically
traditional electives open to the entire student body.
And that is what this course is.
So essentially, this course would be one that would be targeted to students
who have been previously identified as gifted,
but would also be open to any student at the high school.
And it would follow a Shark Tank esque style.
So it would be a project based course where students would identify
by either a current problem that needs a solution
or they would identify a solution that already exists that they feel
as though they can improve on and they would create the entire process.
They would learn how to pitch a problem and solution.
They would learn how to create the process of finding that solution
or improving upon a solution that already exists.
They would learn about the
manufacturing
and financial side of creating a product, and then they would learn
how to pitch their product, which would be the ultimate goal of this
course is to have them pitch that product
that they created.
Thank you.
Sam, Do we have any questions or any discussion
about Sam's proposal?
Yeah, there's Donna Cronin.
Sam, my question is, will the students be able to
identify any problem
or are they given a list of categories of, you know,
digital problems, social media problems, curriculum, you know, anything,
or is it just wide open and they just work it out with you?
So the goal would be to give them as much
freedom in choosing their selected problem.
I have found with working with the students
that I've been working with this year, that all of their needs
and interests are so vast that I would be afraid
it would stifle them a little bit if I give them pre-selected problems
so they would have to go through a problem approval process with me
to make sure that it's something we feel
is going to set them on the right trajectory to create their product.
Excellent.
Thank you.
Do we have any other questions?
Just this son, Mullens.
First,
I my previous experience with my firstborn,
who was part of the gifted program when he got into high school
as some of the options for him to participate in any of the classes
or learning opportunities were somewhat limited at that point.
So I do appreciate sort of being a little more creative
in terms of the offerings for sort of the nontraditional
know academically and then traditional options for
for children.
So the first question is what would be
the prerequisite for
for any student to elect a course?
So I don't know that there is a
determined prerequisite for this course.
Ideally, I'd like this course to be open
to the student body,
potentially, maybe not to freshmen.
Maybe this would be a 10th, 11th, 12th grade elective,
but that would be something
that I would probably discuss a little bit further with our administrative team.
Okay.
I think it will be like generally
a good idea to offer it not just as a gift to students, but
people, you know, the kids kind of well, adults the same way, too.
But we learn differently.
So having this type of sort of the project
based, more open type of approach will be more,
I guess, energizing for
for for some students.
The second piece for that is
do you envision most of these projects to be sort of individual ones,
or would you also allow like a team based?
Because if you watch Shark Tank Star, a lot of sort of the partnership going on
and sometimes that's even more challenging and even in real life,
a lot of these new products in the at least a private
sector
innovation
process is a lot of team oriented approach, right?
So what would you consider the team approach also
in addition to the individual projects?
Absolutely.
So I was a general education teacher.
I was in the classroom prior to this position.
I understand the value of collaboration and very much encourage collaboration.
So, yes, if students wanted to propose as a small group
or as a team, that would absolutely be an option for them.
Okay.
Just a one last question.
Would you provide a little more structure and sort of the theories
or best practices out there before you like the design thinking
or some of the trendy The process is that that's out there nowadays.
Would you introduce those processes in the in the
as a as an introduction or would you allow the students
to also research that part of it and see what type of approach that they will use?
So the goal would be to explore
multiple avenues in each facet.
So the problem identification, there's multiple ways that you can go about that
solution identification, multiple ways that you can go about that,
the financial and manufacturing component of this as well.
So yes, the goal would be basically at each step
of the creation process, we would take time to explore
the different approaches that are being used, that have been used,
that have been successful on the ones that haven't as well.
Okay.
Thank you. For.
Thank you, Mrs.
Mullens.
Thank you, Mrs. Gray.
Any any further discussion or questions?
Just one thing.
Sorry. Go ahead.
Yeah. Donna Cronin, just a follow up.
So would this be open to everybody or just to give it a program?
I know the goal.
The goal would be to have this open to all of the students
with the essentially,
it will be something that we can tell the gifted or I can tell gifted students.
This is an opportunity.
This is a course that maybe you didn't consider because it isn't
traditionally academic,
something that I can kind of give them a little bit
more opportunity and point them in that direction.
But it is not a requirement
for gifted students, nor would it be only open to them.
Perfect. Thank you, John.
This is Lindsey Cooke.
I just had a quick question.
Similar to Donna's being open to the full population of students,
and this might have not been figured out exactly yet, but I wonder
if there will be any sort of a screening process or application
process that you'll need to put in place if this is a popular course for students?
And how if you have if you exceed the amount of students
you can have in one course, what your approach might be for selection?
Yeah, I think that's a great question.
I'm sure that our administrative team has
had to go through that process before and that would be something
that I would have a conversation with them about,
about what we would do if if we exceeded
whatever the class cap would be.
Okay. Thank you.
This is Jeff Smith, the principal.
Sam, you hit it right on the head.
It would be a great problem if we had 300 students sign up for a course like this,
and obviously we wouldn't be able to house all 300 students.
So typically we give some preference to our older students
because younger students would have a chance.
So for example, a sophomore
would have two more years and this is also a half credit or elective.
So it's only a semester course.
So we can we can essentially double up the number of students because
we'd be offering a certain number of seats for the first semester,
as well as a certain number of seats for the second semester.
So we do have a lot of flexibility and there's also a lot of flexibility
in schedule options that we would have, especially some of our older students.
We've
noticed some of our younger students struggle with some of the, you know, the
the flexible scheduling type model.
We do have some younger students that thrive in our blended programs,
but not all freshmen and even sophomores can thrive in that type of environment.
So we would make sure working
with the guidance counselors that we have the right students
in the course, and there may be some students that we would recommend.
They take it the following year
just based on some of their academic preferences and some of their success.
It's it's innovative, it's exciting.
And I hope this is something that we can add to our program of studies.
Thank you.
Dr. Smith.
Any other questions or discussion?
Okay.
Hearing them, can I get a motion to move
the modern innovation course on to the first read level of the process?
So moved on to Cronin second.
Cathy Secker.
Thank you.
All in favor?
I opposed
OC hearing, then we'll move on
and then if we go
back to our agenda,
I believe the next course that we have
on the list for discussion consideration
tonight is
a high school course edition for a proposed college
prep English class
that is using literature
from epic myths and legends
to deliver the instruction. And Mrs.
O'Brien is going to speak to that course with us tonight.
So Michelle. Hi, everybody.
I also want to thank the committee for your time and your ears.
So we have been tasked to the English department to work towards
diversifying our curriculum
some more, open that up to some other voices,
then we have traditionally seen in some of our courses. And
to that end, and because we lost a junior.
Level course a couple of years ago.
Due to the NCAA not recognizing media studies.
As a valid course.
We were asked to start kind of thinking about what can we do.
And I was thinking about
all the stories that get told around the world,
across time, across geographic location and across cultures.
And so I came up with this.
Course proposal.
To teach the same skill band
that is taught in the other college preparatory 11th grade classes,
but to do it through the genres of epics, myths and legends.
So I put together a proposal
and the course will look at
what kind of defines
a myth as opposed to a legend as opposed to an epic.
We will look at some classic,
seminal works in those genres,
but also look at how the same story is told
again across global
lines.
Thank you, Michelle.
Any questions for Michelle in regards
to her proposal?
This is Don
Cronin just confirming it's a four credit course for juniors.
Yes, it's a four year class will be one full credit,
so it will align with the other three.
College preparatory courses offered.
To juniors.
Also, it would be open to honors juniors
who would like to take it as an elective.
Any other questions from the committee
hearing?
And could I get a motion to move
the college prep English course on to the first read level
of the process?
So moved on a Cronin.
Second clip shot.
Thank you
all in favor. I. I
opposed.
Okay we
will move the college prep English course on to the next step
in the process and it will remain on the agenda for next time.
And our next
course addition slash revision is from
Barb Clouser and she's going to talk to us a little bit
about the community service class at the high school.
So, Barb.
Good afternoon.
I should like to thank curriculum counsel
for the opportunity to present this proposal tonight.
Basically, right now this is a revision to a current course.
There is a what's called student World Action class that gives students
the opportunity to do some online work in support
of volunteer work that they may already be doing in the community.
What I've come up in are currently open nine to 12th graders.
What I've been finding out, especially since the pandemic, are ninth
and 10th graders need a little bit more support and could really benefit
from having an in-person component rather than a total asynchronous course.
And this would also allow them to have an opportunity
to have a little bit more interaction with Link Crew as I run at the high school
as well and build on social emotional learning skills that we are currently
working on with all students across the district.
So this what the proposal is, is to allow the courses, the course
to split basically so that 11th and 12th graders would stay in the current course
as it is set up, where they get to pick, where they volunteer,
they get to reflect on that volunteer work and earn academic credit for that.
That would have to be a half credit outside of the normal school day,
full year course.
And the new proposal for ninth and 10th graders will be a semester long,
half credit course that would be in-person and would not only talk about
learning through community service, but also practice executive
functioning skills and other social emotional learning.
Thank you, Barb.
Any any discussion or questions
around the changes that Barb has proposed?
This is Kathy Sitka.
Since it's moving from asynchronous to in person,
do we have enough staff to staff this
or is it the same person who teaches asynchronous
in the same time and then in-person would wouldn't meet?
Would we need more or less staff members?
Kathy, this is Jeff.
We were thinking that because we already have it in our schedule
that this will not have any staffing implication.
We feel that we'll be able to cover this because of the way it's currently set up.
Okay.
So how do you run the current asynchronous?
Is there a teacher designated for that class to check it?
Yes, that's Barb Clouser.
Okay.
This is not a Karen, just a clarification.
The 11th and 12th graders will remain virtual half credit full or half year.
That's a full year because that would not
it's not as intense as far as the academic portion of it.
They just do check ins with me
and they turn in some journals reflecting on their work.
The one that would be in-person obviously would have more academic attachment
to it, considering we'd be meeting on a daily basis for a full semester.
Half credit, half one half a year credit.
Okay.
Thank you.
Hi, this is Kathy again.
I can appreciate how maybe the ninth and 10th graders need the in-person from
and maybe in saying asynchronous is not working for them with this type
of a class with talking about community service and understanding that.
So I'm in favor of this.
And this is Jeff.
You know and with with the
the names of the courses
with the ninth and 10th grade version being learning through community service
and the 11th and 12th grade version being leading through community service,
I think there is a distinction and we've seen our older students
be able to demonstrate the ability to work independently.
And we do think that the younger students would benefit from some of this guidance
and it's something it's a course that they could possibly take
for all four years
because we have a large number of our students
that volunteer in the community and do work.
And it's great that we can give them some academic credit for that and they can
sort of embellish their experiences and share it with other people.
It's a fabulous course.
And again, I think, you know, this is a that I think at this point
it makes a lot of sense to split this up and hopefully we can get this on
our program of studies.
Thank you, Dr.
Smith.
Thank you, Mrs. Claus.
Are there any more questions for Mrs.
Clouser
hearing?
None.
Can I get a motion to move this course on to the first read level?
And the process.
So moved on to Cronin.
Second. Mike Rizzo.
All in favor?
I, I, I
opposed.
Okay, so we will move that course on to the first street
level in the process and move on to our final proposal today,
which is HAC intro to business course being presented by Mr.
Scott Stein at the high school.
So Scott, they're all yours.
Thank you.
This is Scott Stein, and we'd like to thank you for your time this evening,
and I'm looking forward to talking to you about Intro to Business.
It's a little different than some of the other courses
as this course is a half Hershey High School credit, but yet
provides the opportunity for students to earn up to three college credits.
So half year here, three college credits.
The big one here is the cost.
Even our students who go to heck after our high school or our students
who do the dual enrollment, this is a fraction of that cost.
The reason for that is it's being taught here at Hershey
so doesn't have the costs of the building
or the technology or the security or the beautification.
We already are taking care of those costs
in order to do it, the teacher has to be
an adjunct professor with HVAC and we are teaching their curriculum.
So this is Hack's introduction to business course
that we will be teaching at Hershey High School.
That's the big one.
We would be using their course syllabus and their textbook.
The big change of course from past years
is the textbook is now online, so students do not have to pay a textbook.
I know that may have been a sticking point in the past
that has been solved by free online textbooks.
The goal is to have as many students
as possible qualify for this
using tax requirements.
It's students who have completed algebra and geometry.
That's it.
That might be an eighth grader.
That might be some 10th graders.
But for the most part, that's all 11th and 12th grade students.
So the goal is to make it as open as possible to any students
who have completed algebra and geometry.
Really, the students are here at Hershey learning teaching really
the same stuff that I typically teach in money management, in marketing
and principals and management and that sort of thing.
But they had have the opportunity to earn three college credits
for their time here.
Thank you, Scott.
Any questions from the committee?
This is Kathy Stricker.
Full disclosure, I'm a faculty member at HAC
and I actually supervise college
in the high school at a different school district in my program.
But so congratulations.
It means that you got certified to teach at Hacc in this class.
And I'm really excited to see that business.
1 to 1 is part of it
because it's a very popular class at Hack and it's in a lot of associates degrees.
It's in my associate's degree and I teach gerontology.
So it's not necessarily in like maybe
tied to just for business or management students.
So thank you for bringing this to Hershey.
I'd love to see more of these classes come over as well.
But I know you have
to have a master's degree in that subject and also get certified by Hacc.
So it's not necessarily it might not fit for all of our disciplines,
but it could fit for some.
Yes. No, thank you.
I'm very excited about this. You are correct.
You have to have a master's in business to be able to do this.
And one of the things that I saw this is an eight programs
and it's an optional elective in two programs.
So this may be one of the most versatile courses, like you said that Hacc offers.
Yeah.
Thank you, Donna Cronan.
Quick question.
Is this I guess is just technically, but is this considered a college
in high school or do enrollment or is I don't know if that's been relevant.
This is this is considered college and high school door enrollment.
It would be something else.
This would be students here at Hershey taking the course
in our classroom.
And what is that?
What differentiates whether they get college credit or not?
Is it a certain registration? Is it paying a fee?
Is it passing a test?
It's registering with hacc.
If you have passed algebra and geometry, you're automatically accepted
by Harrisburg Community College.
So students would apply their they would be college students
and they would receive the
course here at Hershey.
Or they could just take it as a Hershey student and not get college credit.
You are correct.
To think you.
Yeah, this is a mike Rizzo.
So you look at the costs of $230, is that to be picked up by the student
or by the school?
As of right now, I see that being paid by the student.
That would it's fairly small price to pay for three college credits.
And it does put a little skin in the game
for them to focus
in. Thank you.
Thank you, Scott.
Any other questions or discussion around Hacc Intro
to Business Proposal
Hearing And could I get a motion from the floor
to move Hack Intro to Business On to the first read level of the process.
So move to Secor. Second Mike Rizzo
all in favor.
I, I was
opposed.
Then we will move that
on to the next step in the process.
Next on the agenda is old business.
We don't have any old business for this meeting.
And that brings us to public comment.
Do we have any public comment?
And we do not.
So the next meeting for Curriculum Council will be next year,
January 10th, 2022 at 4 p.m..
So just wishing everyone happy holidays
and looking for a motion to adjourn.
So move.
Donna Cronin.
Second. Mike Rizzo, Thank you.
And that concludes Curriculum Council.
December 13th.
Have a good evening, everybody.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you.