DECATUR, AL (WAFF) -
A program designed to get students ready for college will be cut down drastically for the Decatur Schools System.
Superintendent Dr. Ed Nichols said they are doing it to increase the choices for students.
The International Baccalaureate Middle Years program is for grades 6 through 10: 50 hours of technology, 50 hours of foreign language, and 50 hours of art - plus core classes every school year. Nichols said it does not leave room for electives.
"We feel like by opening up the options, we're allowing kids to take the things toward the career path they're wanting, not just this one path," he said.
Nichols said the school system will open those options by changing the middle years program from being mandatory for all students to a choice for some starting in the 2013-14 school year.
"This would give the kids the option to choose to go in that or maybe go a technology route or a fine arts route. We're trying to kind of look at those options as a school district, 6 through 12, and have academies, and career tech academies and medical academies and those types of programs for kids," said Nichols.
The program for junior and senior honor students will stay intact.
The school district plans to hold a public forum so they can figure out what electives to offer and to find out what parents think. It has not been scheduled yet.
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The school district plans to hold a public forum to figure out what electives to offer and to find out what parents think.
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