Bedford City seeks approval for updated Program of Studies with new courses, fee cuts and pathway changes

Unidentified Speaker, presenting the district’s annual Program of Studies update, told the board the revision is "student focused," intended to give students voice and choice, align curriculum and give staff opportunities to teach their passions. The presenter described the district’s timeline for revisions and said the executive leadership team and Dr. Johnson reviewed and refined the proposals ahead of tonight’s presentation.

The high-school changes include reducing biology to one daily period to match surrounding schools and updating financial-literacy standards to Ohio State standards. The district removed an "intensified algebra" offering because algebra courses are now inclusive and deleted two under-enrolled US studies/honors classes. Music course titles were altered to avoid state classification as a "fundamental" course for special education students; "acapella" was retitled "vocal jazz and show choir" at the music teacher’s request.

The district is adding three College Credit Plus options — two math courses and a second American Sign Language class offered through Stark State — plus a health/physical-education course in speed, power and strength. Staff also described pathway updates across career-based intervention, audio-visual production, business management, marketing, teaching academy, engineering and robotics, clinical health pathways, and sports medicine and exercise.

For career-themed offerings, the district added barbering as a senior pathway this year and said changes in state age requirements will make it possible to expand barbering into a two-year pathway next year. At Heskett, staff recommended removing or combining three advanced science/social-studies courses after consulting instructional specialists, saying those classes were not meaningfully different from the general advanced pathway.

The proposal includes a middle-school redesign: replacing the current advisory with a social-health curriculum and introducing an accelerated Grade 6 science class that would include sixth-grade content with a portion of seventh-grade content, enabling students to progress to high-school level physical science by Grade 8. The presenter said the accelerated pathway is intended to strengthen the district’s gifted-component report-card scores.

Staff also said some course fees would be reduced: the presenter described prior fees as "$28 at sixth grade and $40 for some from eighth grade" and said those items will be set at $15 for the affected grades. The presenter explained next steps: if the board approves the Program of Studies, the district will print and distribute materials to students and counselors will meet with students to collect course requests for scheduling.

The Program of Studies was presented to the board for consideration as agenda item 7.01; the transcript includes that request but does not record a vote on 7.01 in the provided segments, nor does it name a mover or seconder. The presentation included clarifying remarks that a CCT (College Credit/Technical) course may function as an honors-weighted option carrying a 5-point weight, which parents may select for their children.

The board will decide on the update in a recorded action outside the segments provided here.