By Megan Kelley

Review Writer

Staff members from Lake Orion High School attended the Lake Orion Community Schools Board of Education meeting last week to present their course request proposals. In total, seven new classes were proposed. The board is expected to vote on these course requests at their December meeting.

Up first were Marie McDonald and Roslyn Helberg who are requesting the addition of Honors World History A and B for 9th grade.

“It is designed for highly motivated students with above-average critical thinking, reading, writing and oral communication skills,” McDonald said. “The course is designed to challenge students for future expectations in higher-level courses.”

The course is expected to use the same standards and topics of study as the general education world history course but more in-depth, Helberg explained.

LOHS Assistant Principal Rosa Everitt presented Advanced Marketing for 10th through 12th grade.

“In the technical education department we have found the need to offer a course in advanced marketing. Right now we have Marketing 1 and then students choose to either go into Fashion, Sports Marketing or Marketing Workshop,” Everitt said. “We felt that in today’s world, because marketing plays such a vital role in many career pathways from law to college and career pathways like plumbing and construction, that we wanted to actually dive a little deeper.”

The course is expected to build on the topics covered in Marketing 1 and give a more in-depth study of the field.

Stephanie Harris presented her recommendation for the course Exploring Mindfulness & Mental Fitness for all grade levels.

“This class at the high school is basically a course that is grounded in neuroscience and backed by research in terms of mindfulness being a life skill, a life strategy, for students to use throughout,” Harris said.

Julie Barnes presented on two course requests Foundations of Education for all grade levels and Educational Careers Credential Experience for grades 11 and 12.

Foundations of Education, despite being available to all grade levels, would primarily target the 9th grade students who want an introduction on what the world of education using curriculum from the state.

Educational Careers Credential Experience would allow students to continue the Child Development Associate (CDA) and Youth Development Associate (YDA) credentialing opportunities and requirements.

“If we have kids in the education program that are interested in early childhood they can focus their time in our classes working toward the CDA credential and then if they are interested in school-aged children, working with them, then they can focus on the YDA,” Barnes said. “Both credentials will require 480 field hours for those students to be able to earn the credential. A majority of it will have to be taken outside of school even with the additional class.”

Next on the docket was the presentation for Sports Officiating by Dave Whitaker.

Sports Officiating, which would be offered to all grades, is expected to teach students the official MHSAA rules to and give them the knowledge and skills to pass the MHSAA exam on their own and gain the ability to take officiating jobs.

Lastly, Everitt presented Interior Design using Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) which would be offered to all grade levels.

Currently, the high school offers Interior Design as part of its architectural program. However, over the last two years, teacher Sharon Spencer has found that 10 weeks was not enough time to teach the students everything on her curriculum.

Instead of changing the course from a 10-week course to a 20-week course, it was decided that LOHS would offer a more hands-on experience using CAD.

The LOCS Board of Education was enthusiastic about all of the course requests and are expected to vote on them at their next meeting on Dec. 1.