Bensalem Officials Discuss Curriculum Wish List

Everything from potential technology upgrades to possible new course high school offerings, 420 more library books in each of the elementary schools and more was highlighted during Wednesday's school board meeting.

The wish list of sorts for new and improved curriculum offerings for 2014-2015 will be "whittled down" over the next three months, Bensalem Superintendent David Baugh told Patch after the two-hour meeting.

"We know full well we can't pay for everything in here," Baugh said of the multiple pages of suggested additions, including six proposed World Language classes, several Advanced Placement classes, updated textbooks, software subscriptions and more technologically advanced equipment, such as document cameras.

For the last several years, the district has spent about $500,000 to maintain its current curriculum materials and make additions, according to Baugh. 

For the coming year, working to improve the sixth- through 10th-grade math program so it aligns with the state's common core standards is key, Baugh said. 

Maribel Camps, the district's director of elementary curriculum and instruction estimated that the math curriculum changes would cost $219,000. As it stands now, Camps said the district's math program is not aligned with the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, which, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, identifies what students "should know and be able to do at varying grade levels."

At the middle and high school level, Kathleen Leon, the district's director of secondary curriculum and instruction said 47 curriculum renewal proposals are under consideration.

As she walked the board through each of them–including the possibility of adding supplemental algebra courses to help students who fail the Keystone Exam–Leon stressed that everything suggested was in "draft form."

"This is like the budget process and the first run," she said. "Prices haven't been vetted."