New Courses at Staples High

The Westport Board of Education decided at its Monday meeting to drop six courses and add three to the 2010-11 course catalog for students. 

The board postponed action on adding four computer-related courses  —Introduction to Programming, Introduction to Web Programming, Building Web Applications and Software Development — pending more information.

The board also postponed discussion on adding Explore Mandarin Chinese as a course offering to middle school students. 

Brian Fagan, assistant superintendent of curriculum and professional development, sought to allay parents' concerns that Staples High School's curriculum would be diluted through the course changes made Monday night.

Fagan said the six courses that were dropped, which included American Literature and Composition, specialized courses in physics and mathematics and Voice, featured instruction duplicated in other course offerings or did not generate enough interest among students. 

"The rigor embedded in these courses carries on in other courses very much available to students," he said. 

The three courses added to the 2010-11 catalog were Advanced Digital Darkroom, which would be the follow-up course to Digital Darkroom; Mural Painting; and Personal Financial Management.

Additional staff would not be needed to teach those three courses, which are electives, and a lot of students have expressed interest in taking them, according to Fagan and Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon. 

Meanwhile, the Board of Education, after a lengthy discussion, decided to wait until Jan. 5 to vote on whether to add the four computer-related courses to the 2010-11 course catalog. Board members weren't certain if all four courses should be offered in both semesters or if the introductory classes should only be offered in the first semester, followed by the more advanced courses in the second semester.

Among the courses in question, Introduction to Programming is considered a pre-requisite for Introduction to Web Programming, and Building Web Applications is considered a pre-requisite for Software Development. School officials discussed the notion of allowing some students to waive the pre-requisites if their skill level is already at an advanced stage. School administrators said they would determine student interest in the courses and gauge how many could skip the introductory classes.

"How many new courses do we want to add in a tight budget year?" asked school board member Michael McGovern. "I don't want to offer new courses and not have them filled." 

At least 15 students have to sign up for the course to be held, Landon said. Fagan said the intent was to offer both introductory courses in the fall semester and that they would lead into the more advanced courses in the spring semester.

"The idea was to run the courses as a two and a two," he said. Landon said the school district, in a worst-case scenario, would have to hire the equivalent of half a teacher for the four computer courses. 

John Dodig, principal at Staples High School, said he had hoped the school board would acknowledge the worthiness of the four computer-related courses.

"I can't imagine there are too many high schools in America that have courses like this. I'm hoping you would agree it's a great place to start and that you would put your imprimatur on them, that they're good courses and would run them if there is interest," he said. 

Board members didn't explicitly say what Dodig had hoped, but Landon said school officials were "excited about these new courses, every one of them. They offer another alternative to kids."