East Aurora High School students will have some new class options starting next school year, after the District 131 school board recently approved several new course offerings that were under consideration in the district.
The offerings include several English and fine arts classes — including a few that can be taken for dual credit — as well as a class in which students seek to launch a business and a course focused on preparing students to take challenging or advanced coursework in high school. Students can begin taking these new courses starting in the 2027-28 school year.
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The proposed classes were initially discussed at a meeting of the school board’s Curriculum Committee last month. They then came to the school board on Sept. 8 for final approval, where they received the green light.
Included in the newly-approved courses are three dual credit offerings: Dual Credit Composition I and II and Dual Credit Speech.
These semester-long, one period classes are set to replace three current senior English offerings — Writer’s Workshop, Rhetoric and Creative Speaking Honors — and they will allow students to earn both high school and college credit, officials have said.
The two composition courses are for seniors, while the speech course is set to be open to juniors and seniors.
The composition courses are expected to cost the district $3,000 for textbooks, while the speech course is not set to require any additional costs, and is actually expected to save the district $92 per credit hour per student because the district will save on transportation costs.
Now, starting next year, the district is also planning to offer Digital Art & Design, a year-long, introductory course for students interested in digital media. It is slated to have no prerequisites, and is to be part of a pathway program for arts, audio and technology. The course is expected to cost the district $1,000 for drawing tablets.
The district is also going to start offering AP, or Advanced Placement, 2-D Art and Design for high schoolers. The year-long course is expected to cost the district $1,000 for photography textbooks.
Additionally, starting next year, the district will be offering a new business course, called “ACCELeratoredu.” Intended to follow the district’s existing INCubator course, in which students create and pitch a product, the new course offering will allow students to create a corporation and launch the business they pitched in the prior course, with help from a local mentor.
That class is expected to cost the district $2,750 for an annual subscription fee for its curriculum.
Lastly, the district will be offering a new elective course called Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, which is meant to help students — specifically, those who are not receiving academic support or interventions, but who may not be ready to succeed in upper-level courses — develop test-taking, note-taking and organizational skills. Some neighboring schools already offer this elective, according to leadership at the high school.
AVID is intended to be a sort of support system that students apply and are selected for, officials have said. Students would take an AVID elective course each year alongside their other academic courses, and groups of students often move through the grade levels together. Additionally, former students who participated in the program and are in college are often recruited to serve as tutors for students currently in the AVID course.
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The high school has been participating in AVID training and uses some AVID strategies already. Because the district already has an AVID yearly membership, the new course is not expected to cost the district anything extra, besides the potential tutoring costs.