The Examiner U-46 News Feed

Curriculum proposals approved by Dist. U-46

By Seth Hancock
  Four curriculum proposals were approved unanimously by the Board of Education in School District U-46 at its meeting on Monday, June 1 which was held virtually due to the COVID-19 shutdown.
  Included was an elementary integrated proposal to add the second and third stages of a current curriculum that was approved last year. The plan is to implement the change in the 2020-2021 school year, and it has an estimated cost of $7.2 million for resources and professional development.
  “In 2019, the Elementary Integrated Curriculum Stage 1 which defined desired results and provided K-6 with the curriculum framework for literacy, social studies, science, social and emotional and information and digital literacy standards was approved by the Board,” the proposal stated. “This proposal is for Stages 2/3 which further develop the Elementary Integrated Curriculum by providing performance tasks to assess learning and guiding questions for planning learning experiences and instruction.”
  Celia Banks, coordinator of elementary literacy and libraries, said the resources include guided reading sets for each building which equate to thousands of books.
  Two middle school family and consumer sciences proposals were approved which will create four new electives.
  The first proposal, with an estimated cost of $358,327, would create the culinary and personal success as well as culinary and leadership skills electives.
  The proposal stated “kitchen equipment and classroom resources will need to be updated accordingly on a site-by-site basis” and “all schools will receive new cooking appliances to facilitate and support the extension of culinary skills acquisition.”
  The second proposal, with an estimated cost of $69,809, will create the introduction to computers and interactive media electives. The cost would include purchases of technology like 3D printers and drones.
  The final curriculum proposal approved was for a Heritage Spanish course with an estimated cost of $209,963.
  “This curriculum program will prepare students with Spanish experience in the home but little or no formal education in Spanish language,” the proposal states. “The program will prepare Heritage Spanish students to take AP Spanish Language and Culture and, if time in their school schedule permits, AP Spanish Language or Dual Credit Spanish offerings through Elgin Community College.”

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