HS Supervisors Outline 21st Century Life and Careers, Visual and Performing Arts

While the is known for its great common core curriculum, the academic supervisors of the 21st Century Life and Careers and the Visual and Performing Arts programs presented an overview of the great elective courses the high school district has to offer students.

Besides just preparing high school students for college, there are many classes that prepare students for the real world. Cathy Boenig, Jane Goldstein, Shanna Howell, Stephanie Kayafas, and Meryl Norwich spoke to the Board of Education about the music department, fine arts department, family and consumer science department (formerly known as Home Economics), business department, and technology education.

"Our 21st Century Careers and Visual and Performing Arts programs are practical and engaging and innately require differentiated instruction," Boenig said. "The students develop essential skills and the ability to use higher level thinking skills for application, analysis and synthesis."

Fine Arts

Goldstein explained the Arts program and the fact that it is made up of two categories:

1. Fine Arts - which consists of basic art skills: drawing, sketching, etc. from introductory classes all the way up to AP classes.
2. Applied Art - which consists of hands-on classes: working with textiles, fibers, metals and ceramics from introductory classes all the way up to honors classes.

Art students in the district participate in various art shows, national honors society, Spooktacular, and community art work.

Business

Howell spoke about the Business Administration department in the district which is comprised of a range of courses from administration, entrepreneurship, and management. "Our courses provide practical relevance, career preparation, and meaningful learning experiences for all students," Howell said.

The Business Administration students are involved in a lot of co-curricular and extra-curricular clubs, activities, and competitions. The Business students get involved in Team Challenge with the Greater Monmouth Chamber of Commerce, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), and Distributive Educational Clubs of America (DECA) which is for the high school students enrolled in marketing, who also compete at regional and national competitions.

"Imagine high school students making recommendations to professional economists about whether or not to maintain intereste rates - they're doing it," Howell said, describing the Fed Challenge competition. "It's designed to bring real world economics into the classroom, and that's what teams do they play the role of monetary policy makers and they analyze the current economic conditions."

Family and Consumer Science

More famously known as Home Economics, Boenig went over the backbone of program touted for teaching students life and independent living skills. This program is more important now than ever before because there are more dual career families currently than in the past, Boenig said.

Classes such as fashion design, interior design, cooking, child development, family and life skills, and nutrition classes. Students get to participate in fashion shows, cooking competitions, community service activities and listen to guest speakers.

Music

Kayafas, the supervisor of the Music Department for the district, discussed the course offerings and extra-curricular activities that music students are involved in. The high schools each have several music concerts each year, the marching band plays at some sports games and participates in the district-wide marching band festival every fall, the orchestra and the chorus are utilized in the school musicals, and various singing groups perform at community and school events.

Many musicians have been formally recognized for their talents and are all-shore and all-state chrorus, band, jazz ensemble and orchestra.

Technology Education

Norwich talked about the Technology Education Department and discussed how it prepares students for their place in life and how learning about certain technological programs make the students more marketable in the workplace.

The Technology Education Department encompasses more than just classes about computers, electronics, graphic design, photography, and digital media. Woodworking, cabinetmaking, architecture, and automotive classes are also offered.

Response

Superintendent Charles Sampson was extremely impressed by the elective course offerings within the high school district. "We have a responsibility to our students to unlock their passion and to help them find avenues to what's really important to them," Sampson said. "I think that when we stop providing those avenues with budget cuts and things like that we really lose a piece of what we're here to do."