Northmor High School students will have the opportunity to take a variety of new courses next year, thanks to the online course offering through Jefferson County Educational Service Center (JCESC.)

Northmor Curriculum Director, Ann Pfister said there will be 13 new courses offered next year including: Career Planning, Forensic Science, Marine Biology, Games through the ages, Greek Mythology, Intro to Sign Language, Marketing Basics, History of Rock-n-roll, Music Appreciation, Intro to the theater, Study skills, Short stories and Roman mythology.

The Northmor School Board approved the agreement/contract with JCESC after Pfister explained details of the program with great enthusiasm.

“This is exciting;” said Pfister “and the kids are really excited about all these options.”

District Treasurer, Tammi Cowell expressed some concern as to whether teachers would be certified.

Pfister said that the teacher tied to each course must be certified. She added that the curriculum is all connected to state standards.

150 high school students signed up for the courses and Pfister will be working with students, their parents and the school counselor to see that courses are appropriate and to see if the student can best work on a class individually or in a classroom with more teacher supervision.

Courses will all be online with students doing testing and getting feedback online. They can do coursework at home or in study hall. Students will be limited to taking three classes so as not to overload.

Pfister was also enthusiastic about teachers being able to pull units out of a course for their own classroom lessons. This is an extra benefit for teachers and students with no added charges.

Superintendent Chad Redmon noted that this is a one year contract and a trial run. He added that it is a bargain for the $10,000 budgeted for the curriculum.

In other business the board approved the contract with Vinson Consulting for a review and roadmap for the Northmor EMIS Process at the cost of $12,000. EMIS is the statewide data collection system required by the stata. The contract with NCOCC for EMIS Coordinator services for 22017-2018 school year was approved at a rate of $46 per hour. Contract hours for the total year are not to exceed 360 hours.

In the citizens’ participation section of the meeting, better signage was requested for the buildings. Some signs are worn and their placement at the main entrance needs to be clearer.

Another parent pointed out the need for working scoreboards on the softball and other ballfields. Scoreboards are very old and aren’t operating. There was some discussion that there may not be people volunteering to operate the scoreboards. Supt. Redmon said he will look into the scoreboards and see why they aren’t operating.

By Alberta Stojkovic

The Sentinel

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