(Photo Source: McGraw Central School Disrict Website).
The McGraw Central School District Board of Education (BOE) met on Oct. 5 to conduct business and hear about new class offerings at the high school.
The next BOE meeting will take place at 6:30pm on Thursday, Nov. 3 in the High School library.
New Is In
The BOE approved several measures, including the purchase of new textbooks for Psychology 103, and a larger ticket item of the purchase of two buses. The board also accepted a donation of books to the elementary school from Tracey Pierson, and a donation of school supplies from Intertek. It was noted during the informational session that enrollment has continued the downward trend which started in Sept 2019, with nearly 30 fewer students in attendance this year than 2021.
Classes Upped
Nancy Law was the first teacher to present on new course offerings, and explained that while her course itself is not new, health was previously not offered during the Summer session. Opening up a session during the Summer will allow driven students to free up more time during the regular semesters to complete other requirements or Advanced Placement courses that they may not have otherwise had time for. There are plans to offer Economics & Government in the summer as well.
Beverly Dodici, elementary school psychologist, is excited to now be teaching Psychology 103 and help students earn credit towards their associates degree. She hopes to take students on field trips to Tompkins Cortland Community College and Cornell University to further prepare them for college as they learn about experiment design.
Deanna Morey-Wurst presented her new art course, Drawing I. She noted that not only is McGraw one of only two local schools offering college credit in Art, many of the required lessons have already been touched on and there is a good pool of potential students for this course level. Morey-Wurst is interested in adding Painting I as an option in the future.
Master Teacher Nicole Lener is leading the new 4 credit Anatomy & Physiology course. When researching what other schools are using for textbooks and resources, she discovered they are simply not offering the course elsewhere, mainly due to its rigor. For example, the three juniors enrolled had to memorize 130 terms for their first unit exam. The course that McGraw chose to purchase includes a digital classroom, which allows students to access video clips and flashcards on their phones. The students all passed that first exam with grades above 85, with two scoring in the 90s.
