The Examiner U-46 News Feed

Curriculum proposals to be adopted in Dist. U-46

By Seth Hancock
  The Board of Education in School District U-46 approved of a pair of curriculum proposals at its meeting on Monday, Feb. 5.
  The votes were 6-0, board member Veronica Noland was absent.
  Included was a new high school physical education (PE) course, aquatics. It will include aquatic skills/games, aquatic fitness and aquatic safety.
  “The need to develop an Aquatics class came from the teachers at the five comprehensive high schools who teach the Lifeguard Certification and Leadership class,” the proposal stated. “Teachers had many students in the Lifeguard Certification course that found success with the knowledge part of the course but did not have the swimming skills necessary to pass the water tests. School counselors often had to guide students to a different PE course choice because they were not able to meet the basic swim skill competencies that are required for the Lifeguard Certification and Leadership course.”
  The proposal added: “This is a course that will introduce students to the knowledge and skills they need to be able to safely utilize an aquatics setting for fitness, recreation, sports, or career. This course will be available to all students in grades 9-12 and will support skills development, stamina, and increased access to Lifeguard Certification and Leadership Course.”
  The estimated total cost is $75,313 between instructional equipment ($55,463), professional development/training ($14,500) and instructional resources ($5,350).
  Also approved was an update to the middle school PE curriculum, which was last updates in 2020. The total cost estimate is $8,633 between resource ($4,500) and professional development/training ($4,133).
  “The middle school physical education curriculum was adopted in 2017 and updated in 2020,” the proposal states. “Since the Board of Education update in 2020, there have been changes to the district curriculum templates, fitness equipment, and teacher resources needed for middle school PE. With the addition of fitness center equipment to our middle schools, there was a need to review and update our fitness curriculum. While reviewing all middle school documents, we also discovered a need to increase the taxonomy of our district summatives and rubrics.”