By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
Principal Mark Burke unveiled a plan Thursday night to the Bucyrus school board that would reduce the amount of elective courses needed to graduate.
Currently in order to graduate from Bucyrus students need nine elective credits along with the core group of classes required by the Ohio Department of Education. Burke suggested that with classes reverting back from the block scheduling format Bucyrus should also revert back to 21 credits and reduce the number of elective credits from nine to six.
Burke explained his proposal.
“We are looking to be competitive in the market place I guess if you want to use business terms,” Burke said. “We are trying to offer a great product to our students and families, but also look at what the other school districts and community schools around us are doing at 21 credits while we are at 24.“
“We went to 24 credit hours when we went to block scheduling, and we were 21 credits when we were single period scheduling like we are now. So we are looking to go back to where we were when we were under single period scheduling,” Burke continued.
The school board didn’t vote on the matter. A vote may take place at April’s Board of Education meeting.
Originally used as a way for students to make up lost credits, Burke unveiled 46 e-courses which will be available to students in grades 10-12.
“We are looking to enhance students learning experiences. The courses can be taken as an elective to expand upon other classes,” Burke explained.
The board approved waiving all course fees for students as well as the pay to play fee for the 2014-2015 school year with the exception of the initial drug testing fee.
The Bucyrus Board of Education approved all personnel Items, and business items on the agenda which included purchasing a CE S Bus from Truck Sales and Service Inc. out of Mansfield for $88,920.
The next Bucyrus Board of Education meeting will be at 7 p.m. on April 24 in the Lincoln Administrative Building.