Columbus Municipal School District students beginning with next year’s freshmen class will take a new, more personalized path to graduation.
Superintendent Dr. Philip Hickman presented the “Pathways to Graduation” program to parents, students and community members during Monday evening’s school board meeting. The new plan will put a greater emphasis on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) and allow high schoolers to choose personal fields of study, which the district calls endorsements.
Endorsements are equivalent to a college major, according to Hickman.
Columbus High School students will be able to choose from five endorsements: STEM; business and industry; arts and humanities; public services; and multi-disciplinary. These endorsements are a part of a new graduation certificate called the “Distinguished Level of Achievement.” This 24-credit graduation option will require 19 credits within the traditional graduation requirements and an additional five credits coming from students’ endorsements. Students can switch endorsements throughout high school.
“We want to display accomplishments on our diplomas,” said Christopher Bray, director of McKellar Career-Technical Center. “Our diplomas are going to start serving almost as a resume to our students.”
Students who accomplish the distinguished level of achievement will have diplomas that list acknowledgments for outstanding performance, such as dual credit courses taken, advanced placement classes, second language experience, test scores and industry certifications.
“If a child stays on a certain path all the way through high school, can you imagine the knowledge that child will have and how marketable that child will be for universities?” Hickman said. “They will come and recruit your children, I guarantee it.”
Roughly 80 people attended the board meeting at Brandon Central Services Center on McArthur Drive. The district serves approximately 4,500 students.
Hickman said the district will hold meetings to determine other options for students who may struggle to complete the Distinguished Level of Achievement.
In middle school, students will build on the skills of their respective magnet elementary schools, according to Hickman.
Sixth graders will take a year-long course that covers each of the different elementary schools’ magnet specialty in seven weeks. In seventh and eighth grades, students will begin to meet with counselors and teachers to decide on an endorsement path.
Throughout middle and elementary schools, students will build upon their knowledge and compete with one another in academic competitions testing their skills.
Hickman said parental involvement is needed to make the Pathways program successful.
“We need everyone,” Hickman said. ” We need all our parents engaged. In order for this to work and our students to be successful we need engagement.”
Student attendance, homelessness discussed
During Monday’s meeting, the school. board also looked at attendance data. Franklin Elementary and Columbus High School were the only schools below the 95 percent attendance goal for December.
Board member Currie Fisher asked assistant superintendent Dr. Craig Shannon how student homelessness affected attendance, and if the district had statistics for homelessness. Shannon told the board there are over 100 students in the district who are classified as homeless.
“The attendance rate for the those students, I’m very sad to report, is out of kilter,” Shannon said.
Dropout rates for Columbus High School are down. There were no dropouts reported from August through January. Board president Angela Verdell requested information on students who may be on the edge of dropping out, which Shannon said he can present at the next board meeting.
Board to look at 16th section land
The board moved to give permission to CMSD attorney David Dunn to pursue information on 16th section land within the district, which may fall under CMSD property.
Dunn and board member Jason Spears have identified 89 leases in Columbus that may technically fall under district property. Dunn received an unanimous vote granting him permission to speak with local tax assessor Greg Andrews and city attorney Jeff Turner to confirm if these local properties fall into revenue for the district.
Athletic facility update
Spears made a motion that all potential facilities or improvements to current facilities that exceed $40,000 have bid packets from contractors submitted to the board.
Currently, state law calls for bids to be presented for projects exceeding $50,000. Spears was concerned about the cost of the new weight room, which came in at $49,999 when given an approved limit of $50,000.
The district has allotted $2 million for athletics facilities and equipment, something Spears feels is a mistake. After much debate, Spears’ motion was unanimously approved.
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