##VIDEO ID:EYOPp3DINGQ## good evening families and welcome to the high school South program of studies for 2025 2026 I'm Dr Barbara gold I'm the chief academic officer for West Windor Plainsboro school district and I'm joined this evening by our High School South counselors as well as our supervisors or content area supervisors and this evening we hope to be able to share with you our high school program of studies and talk to you a little bit about the transition from 8th grade into nth grade and our program of studies that we have to offer for our students just a little bit of housekeeping and Logistics of how this evening will work um this is a webinar structure which means that um the question and answer will be set up but we encourage you as families and students if you are listening just to wait a little bit before asking questions because we are sure to probably answer many of your questions throughout the evening um also the webinar will be recorded and posted on our district website it does take a couple of days for us to be able to convert that into a YouTube so um if you check back in a few days you will be a able to access the webinar to listen to the recording again so um please be sure to check that out if you miss a question or if you just want to listen to the content again so let's get this evening started and here we go okay so for this evening's agenda we'll talk a little bit about high school transition in general course requirements for graduation purposes also we'll uh heavily focus on the ninth grade choices for this evening we'll talk a little bit about option two as that is often um a question that we have about high school transition we'll talk about extracurricular opportunities at the high school level and definitely about some of our summer opportunities for learning as well first and foremost High School transition this is an exciting time for our eighth graders moving into the high school as um this is a great transition period for students and we are excited to bring the program of studies with so many different opportunities offers for our students we wanted to share that High School transition is a collaborative uh process and what we mean by that is that our school counselors along with the middle school counselors and our teachers do collaborate and talk with one another about the transition as well as talk with students about what it's like to be at the high school so this process starts very early on and um just recently our High School South counselors visited a gr over middle school and presented to our students what high school would be like shared with them some of the things that happened as part of the transition process as well as our program of studies so that already took place and um also our counselors will be meeting with our students uh oneon-one to go over some of the course offerings and to share with them what high school will be like and they will be able to get to meet their uh counselors respectively in small groups as well as one to one the other thing that's important to know about the high school transition is that it's really important to stay informed so we have lots of information that gets shared about deadlines um during this transition and the best way to stay informed is to pay attention to District website uh lots of our information is posted on the district's website including the program of studies also um information gets sent out through district emails so be sure that your Genesis email is accurate so that you can receive all of the information that's critical for signing up for different things um and you can be sure that you get everything that you need in order to be as informed as possible the school websites as as well as students Google classrooms also will have accurate information about the transition process and then as you'll hear this evening from many of our content area supervisors um also thinking about as you're making decisions about your course load as well as your extracurricular activities thinking about the balance of that academic as well as social and emotional um benefits and extracurricular activities that students will participate in as I mentioned a little bit earlier the course selection uh process and timeline starts very early on in January as school counselors meet with our eighth graders to discuss the program of studies and that already took place and then that's followed by what's happening this evening which is our parent program of studies night um where we discuss all of the different options that are available to our nth graders and then the course selection process will start right in Genesis where you will be able to see what students are eligible for and the portal opens January 24th that's when um Genesis will open and you will have all of the different dropdown menus and availabilities for your child available in Genesis and then in March um high school counselors will meet with students oneon-one to finalize their course selections so when the portal opens in January students will be able to see what they're eligible for and then the counselors will be meet with them um to select and finalize their course Selections in March and then um in August and September students uh the high school orientations will occur with counselors peer leaders administrators and staff and then in ninth grade um counselors will also meet with students in small groups as they participate in transition groups and we also host U Club fairs to introduce students to all the different opportunities that exist uh within the school also in August um one thing that I left out that is important to pay attention to in August many of uh students who are athletes many of our athletic events um and athletic experiences start in August so it's also important to pay attention to that as teams begin practices in August okay High School graduation requirements so in order to graduate from high school besides attendance and um passing the NJ GPA which is a state required assessment um students are required to receive 120 credits in order to graduate from high school school and here are the allocations um that students are required to achieve in language arts students are required to achieve 20 credits or four years of language arts um in mathematics 15 credits which includes um Algebra 1 and geometry which is three years of mathematics in science students are required to complete 15 credits which includes biology and chemistry and um environmental science or or physics in social studies students are required to complete 15 credits which includes one year of world history and two years of some type of American studies um and we will go into further discussion on this um as the content area supervisors talk about the program of studies and then students are also required to take financial literacy for two and a half credits um health and physical education for three and three qus of physical education and one and 20 and a quarter Health credits per year so all four years students have to have health and physical education so three out of the four marking periods they have physical education and then one marking period they have health every year um and then in Visual and Performing Arts students are required to have five credits and in World Language 10 credits or two years at minimum of World Language and then uh 21st century and career um skills students are required to have five credits for a total of 120 credits in after graduation most of our students do graduate with more than 120 credits and now I'd like to introduce you to our language arts supervisor um miss Emily Kling who will talk about our ninth grade courses that are available um oh I'm sorry let me talk about um The High School courses that are available for our ninth graders so for ninth grade um students typical course load looks as as following students would have language arts world history a level of mathematics which will we will go into more detail um about the choices that are available science which is biology for most students World Language physical education and health one elective lunch and study hall study hall is a mandatory course for all of our students all four years there are often many questions about course entrance criteria in terms of whether students are select um College Prep courses or honors um courses and what the elil Ed eligibility requirements are so in order to determine student eligibility for their courses we take a look at the 8th grade first and second trimester average in appropriate prerequisite courses so in order for a student to be eligible for honors they must achieve 80% in iraa social studies World Language science and Algebra 1 and if they are in um Algebra 1 honors or h& Algebra 2 they must achieve a 70% in order to be eligible for honors in n9th grade okay and the specific entrance criteria by course are all listed in the program of studies which is available on the district website if a student does not meet that eligibility that I just reviewed in the previous slide there is a process in which um they could appeal and they could be asked for a review and in consultation with parents their teacher school counselor and the subject area supervisor other considerations could also be considered such as um standardized assessments their P PSATs njsla um their overall GPA and other common assessments right or for particular courses they may take a look at any comma assessments for that particular course or they might take a look at their third trimester grade okay so this is in rare situations where students are not eligible but they want to be considered for an honors course um if you do have a question please uh don't raise your hand is we are not going to unmute instead put your question in the Q&A and that and school counselors Andor supervisors will answer your question in the Q&A portion thank you as this is a webinar format and therefore we we can't um have participants unmuted as I mentioned uh the program studies is available on the district website and the program of studies is really important that families and students are familiar with the program of studies is it outlines all of the available courses not only for students from 8th into 9th grade but also for all of their academic four years now the program of studies is does change year after year so it is important to know that there are times where courses are available one year and they are not available the following year okay so sometimes students like to map out their entire four years um but please note that it is possible that that things do change and their courses do change and so really think about it you know from one year to the next you can also use the QR code here and that should take you right to the uh program of studies as well so and the best person for students to be able to talk about their course selection with obviously are their families and their parents also their teachers you know asking their teachers um for input and feedback regarding their choices is a great way to know you know in terms of their strengths and decision making their teachers are a great resource for them as well as the school counselor who's super knowledgeable about all of the courses that are there and and the courses that we have to offer oh sorry about that that took me to the QR code we go go back to the presentation click somewhere else as I mentioned earlier you may begin to request courses and electives in Genesis starting on January 24th prior to meeting with the school counselors but the but the school counselors will meet with students individually to finalize their course selections and that will happen sometime in March okay so all of the High School South counselors will go down to the middle school and they will set up appointments to meet with students oneon-one in order to finalize their schedules and then for any students that are requesting course eligibility review because they don't meet that elig eligibility for a course that they would like to be placed in um the course El the request is due by April 1st okay so these deadlines are really important to adhere to because we do not make exceptions as it relates to different deadlines so it's really important to note the deadlines and all of that information can be found on the district website the other really important thing to know is that once your final course selections are made with your counselors there is one more opportunity for for request for changes and that occurs from August 1st through August 15 okay so if students you know make their course selections and then they decide at some point oh you know I wanted this particular elective where I was thinking about this particular course and and now I have a different thought in my mind in terms of of elective and I want to try a different elective or I want to be considered for a different elective the opportunity to make that change is from August 1st to August 15 there must be an open seat in the elective that they have requested in order for the change to be made and we do prioritize um class size and consider that no elective changes will be made after August 15 so changes are not made in September or October once the course selections have been made and finalized and that's for a variety of reasons um it's for Staffing reasons it's to ensure that we have you know we maintain class sizes that are appropriate and it's to make sure that we can run the sections that are requested by students um based on their elective choices so it's very important that students really think about their elective choices because once those choices are made in August although you can make an elective course change it's not a guarantee that there's going to be an open SE okay so really think critically before making those decisions and finalizing them with the school counselor in March ninth graders um will have an opportunity to change their level meaning if they opt for an honors level in n9th grade and they're enrolled in world history or Algebra 2 or biology or English language arts they are able to change their level up through October 15 and this is only for ninth grade students we do allow n9th grade students to go all to change their level through October 15th for for the courses that are listed here because our n9th grade students have not had the opportunity to experience the difference between college prep and honors courses in the same way that our other high school students have right so we give them a little bit longer we cannot go past especially if a student is moving from a college prep level to an honors level after October 15th because there are a certain number of days that students need need to be enrolled in an honors course in order to receive high school credit for an honors level course okay so October 15th is our date so it's really important that you also adhere to that timeline all level changes are made in consultation with the counselor the teacher department supervisor Etc and students have to limit their changes to one level change per year so again it's important important um for students to think about as they're making the selection between um choosing a college level prep or an honors course where their strengths are where their areas of passion are and where they feel that they you know want to maybe take um that additional challenge or rigor at the high school level okay and now I would like to introduce you to our supervisor of language arts miss Emily King who will talk with you about the language arts options at the high school level and describe a little bit about the difference between our College Prep course in our honors curriculum all right thank you Dr gold so as Dr gold mentioned students at the high school level take um uh High School uh I'm sorry they take language arts every year in high school uh and I'm really excited to be here tonight to talk to you a little bit about what that course sequence looks like so the language arts program here in wwp um guides students through a really engaging and transformative journey of self-discovery critical thinking um and ultimately ending in their senior year with students examining questions around Global awareness so in thinking about the ninth grade year if you can sort of picture a curriculum that's sort of situated like concentric circles in the nth grade year the curriculum is focused on thinking about the self and identity and our relationship with our world around us so students explore those themes of identity through a number of different thematic units in their ninth grade year and then if we think about those concentric circles again when they go to 10th grade that Circle widens and where the focus shifts towards thinking about what does it mean to be an American and thinking about the narratives that we see in American literature Andor perspectives on being an American from Global literature when students then move up to the junior year again if we picture those concentric circles getting wider and bigger with each year in the junior year we then see a focus on what it means for America in um on the the global stage so in what ways has um in what ways has America interacted with other countries around the world where do we see that present in literature and what are those global voices that we should be paying attention to and it's important to note that students will get a variety of those voices throughout their time beginning in ninth grade um but those are the the areas of folky for each individual year and then when students go to grade 12 we really see a focus in thinking about beyond the classroom and what is the Legacy that we leave behind um so that year really kind of focuses on you know how do we use our voice to enact positive change so through looking through a variety of rigorous and really engaging texts students ask themselves you know how can I impact the world and continue to its betterment so that's sort of an that's that's an overview of thinking about what that program our language our language arts program looks like from 9 to 12 and in thinking about the difference between h ERS and college prep the curricula has primarily the same core text but the degree to which the teacher goes into um depth in regards to the reading and the writing is the difference between the college prep and the honors section and when we think about the ninth grade honors section or honors and uh College Prep within the multi- level again students will be reading the same core text and we'll see the differentiation between the colle prep and the honors in those supplementary and auxiliary texts that are brought in so including short stories novels dramas essays poetry song lyrics films Etc um so one of the other things to think about is once students get up to 11th and 12th grade they have the option to take AP Lit or AP Lang so 11th grade the option would be AP Lang and in 12th grade it would be AP Lit and so there's really two primary reasons why a student would opt to take that advanced placement course in language arts so one is if you have a child who is really really passionate about language arts they love reading they love writing and they want to be in immersed in a course that's really going to challenge them and push their practice and refine it and enhance it even more the second reason would be if you have a child who wants to get better at those skills and is willing to put in the work to push their practice forward so if you have a child who is saying you know I I I really love reading and writing I love language arts and I feel like it's something that I could get better in and I really want to challenge myself then absolutely apit or Lang would be a place to go given that your child or your student is dedicated and committed to to doing the work in the classroom and again if you have a child or a student who thinks to themselves like I love this I'm already really good at it and I really want to refine it so when I get to college I can really take off then this also would be the class for you and thinking about advanced placement the in regards to our electives in our language arts program we have journalism so it's offered at both of our high schools and so journalism is a multi-level elective that really inspires students to consider analyze and seek to improve the world that they see around them so whether that world is their school their neighborhood their Community or their country or even when we think about our globalized world so beginning level students in the language arts class focus in on reading and writing about everything from news to sports to the Arts with the happenings at the high school um and by the time they move into intermediate and the advanced sections those students are continuing to hone their reporting and their writing skills while also producing a website in class and contributing to the school newspaper so I think generally when we think about the the the program our primary goal is to really just sort of steep students in really high quality engaging RI rigorous literature and get them to ask the really big questions about themselves their lives their place in this world and how when they graduate wwp and walk across that stage how can they ensure that they continue to make the world a better place so I am going to now pass it over to Dr Ashley Warren who's going to talk to you a little bit about our world language options and it was nice to be here tonight I'll be here for any questions good evening everyone and welcome uh future Pirates and your families it's lovely to join you so I just want to give a quick overview of our world language options um World Language has different tracks as we have four different languages in our program and as w share 10 credits of World Language are required to graduate which represents two years or two courses um entering ninth grade students have several options if they're going to continue French from middle school they have French to college prep continuing Chinese from middle school is Chinese 2 College Prep continuing German from middle school is German 2 college prep and Spanish students who are continuing from middle school have the option of taking Spanish 3 or Spanish 3 honor it is important to note that these two courses represent different proficiency levels and I know that that might not be traditionally how we think about a college prep or an honors course but for um all intensive purposes um I can just say that Spanish 3 continues the work of the intermediate low proficiency level meaning that students are speaking or producing language in strings of sentences and Spanish three Hors works on maintaining paragraph length discourse um and moving in and out of time frame so fluidly moving between talking about the past talking about the present and talking about the future um students who've had less than two two years or less of Spanish in middle school or who demonstrate a need to review the beginning principles of Spanish can schedule for Spanish too and your child's current Spanish teacher would be an excellent resource to have that conversation with to understand which of the Spanish options would be best I'll share we do have multiple Spanish options just because our school district starts Spanish education in second grade which is unique compared to French Chinese and German so a few more notes about world language on the next slide so students can W can who do wish to begin a new language can do so in the high school every year we offer sections of Spanish one and French one for students to begin the language for the first time we also have an option for students to switch languages so say for instance your child has taken uh French all three years of middle school but happens to speak Chinese either because your family speaks Chinese or because your child learned Chinese in a community language school and now wants to take Chinese in the high school excellent we offer a language proficiency assessment in the spring for students you and your family will receive a letter about that likely this Friday um going out to all eighth grade families and students alerting them to the option to sign up for a language proficiency assessment so again that's only for students who want to switch a language so if you currently take a language and you're going to switch to a new language in the high school and you have some Proficiency in that language we assess you so we can place you in the correct level um and then in coordination with the child study team Andor your child school counselor students can take a class called introduction to Spanish communication and culture which is a very targeted class um that's portfolio based and your school counselor or your child study team member can help you understand that course and if you have any questions I'm happy to answer them either here in the Q&A or via email or on the phone thank you so much and now over to Dr St thank you Dr Warren good evening everyone it's it's great to be on with you all tonight to talk about uh your core selections especially for your firsttime High School parent it's an exciting time in you and your family's lives and in your child's life uh I'm here to talk with you tonight about our science options and and to U address uh not just a graduation requirement but a really core fundamental science uh biology and and all of our students take biology because number one uh it's a it's designed to really help them see you know how the world Works around them how the sequence of life has evolved and developed and and helps them to see how systems work in the world of science and in the world around them uh we have two levels of biology it's a multi-level course all of our students and this is a beautiful part of it all of our students are integrated together like they been in sixth seventh and eighth grade and they can make that choice to uh to select biology as a CP class and biology is an honors class uh in a very safe environment for learning in which you know they feel a sense of belonging uh they are not looking on each other as an honors kid or a CP kid or teachers have worked very hard uh to make sure that this is a welcoming environment where kids can explore kids can learn kids can take risks they can choose if they're a P student to level up uh when the time is right and while the window is open but even after that closes they can still choose if they want to challenge themselves to take the honors level work the primary difference between honors and CP is the level of rigor the level of inquiry and that's how we go after science and practices how we ask questions design Solutions plan and carent investigations Etc all the goal being the goal being which excuse me is to teach and to treat your kids uh like scientists and as they move through the the next sequence of years 10th grade 11th grade and 12th grade there are opportunities for them to pursue their passion as a as a seconde option uh they can choose if their criteria meet they can choose bi I'm sorry um a level of chemistry or chemistry honors uh physics or physics honors if they meet the mathematics prerequisite uh or environmental science that's uh the next level of science they'll have to take and as an 11th grade and a 12th grade year they can continue maintaining their their core selection uh to meet their requirements for graduation but also begin to explore their passion pursue what they want to learn about most pursue if they want to become uh you know a veterinarian to move into life scien gr into physical science physics engineering uh there are wealth of electives to take so for example the typical high school science course for someone who's on you know a stem track in college would be to start off with Biology then the appropriate level of chemistry then the appropriate level of physics and or electives to 11th grade year we have a plethora of advanced placement courses designed to challenge your students and to help meet their needs to prepare them for what they want to do most be at physics AP Chemistry AP biology uh AP environmental all these are designed to meet kids where they're at and to help them grow in the desire to be the scientist engineer that they want to be most more is not better it's very important that when you're working with your school counselor with your teachers with us with me to talk about course selection that we choose the logical path that helps support what your child wants to study and learn about most and that's very strategic that's very Tim honored to be a scientist that they want to be to be the journalist that they want to be to be the artist whatever have you it's very important that when you're considering all of their core selections that they're designed to meet the students where they're at and what they want to study most and I'm happy to have those conversations about you know what interests your child I'd be happy to jump on a Google meet uh either in the chat tonight we can talk further or by all means please suffer reach out to me one of the programs I most proud of that we have begun to develop as our summer science program this is designed based on uh the students passion to to take a science course in the summer that suits their best personal interest and we began to design these courses to provide an alternative a credible real alternative to an option two course instead of going to a learning center for five weeks come learn with us come join our teachers look at the students in this picture they're smiling they're happy they're engaged in real field work and that's what makes this program so special and as they grow into this design they can take a look at any opportunity uh to explore to talk further with their teachers to build that relationship in the field and decide that here's another option let me see if I like this so we offer the science in the summer program the middle the Marine Science Program just for that and as we move into the science courses who are interested pursuing learning on the next slide uh learning in the summer to feed their passion of science is what our goal is and the course runs through Community Education meets from July 7th through August 1st 8:30 to 11:30 uh students will receive two two and a half credits um and then this is designed in place of option two not in addition to option two so students who are choosing to join us for the summer and spend uh a great time learning with our teachers uh that's the choice that they're making if you have questions about the science course uh that they want to study most or questions about the summer course for for your child please feel free to reach out to me I've also linked the Marine Science frequently asked questions uh on this slide and uh that is also posted on the uh Community Education website so the opening uh for that will be coming soon for registration if you have any questions about that like I said please feel free to ask uh I enjoy conversations with parents when we talk about student course selection and and what's best for kids and how that we in Westminster plb are are strongly positioned uh to support your child and education Journey uh I will I will be back on later on in the presentation to talk about option too and uh and perhaps we can continue our journey and understanding about what's best for your kids then thank you very much for your time be Dr St can you just mention um the cost of the course oh yes please absolutely it's a $500 per student which is a pretty good price considering getting two of our teachers to work with your child uh for five weeks to Summer and that's the best deal we have going there are other programs that we have built there's mathema ICS the social studies and I will let those respective colleagues respected colleagues rather excuse me uh talk about those courses in turn and now I'm going to pass this off to uh Dr cindia cini uh for social studies and the course is also um offered at the co College Prep level as well as um the honors level correct yes that's true good evening welcome to High School South it's a very special place and I'm thrilled to take you through some social studies options for your nth grade so in the program of studies that outlines the requirements and Dr gold had shared them just to remind you in social studies there are two years of US History required and one year of world history world history is designed as our ninth grade course students study basically pick up where they left off in eth grade in the study of world history studying the Renaissance through the present and the real point of social studies is developing the kind of Learners and leaders who can go out and make a difference in the world we really want students to understand the histories of different parts of the world different groups of people how culture impacts people and be able to go and vote as informed citizens and truly take the learning that they had in social studies the practice of reading and writing and apply it when they're critically analyzing the news or deciding how to vote in elections so one of the practices that we encourage kids to engage in is the reading and writing so that they can take that informed action based on what they've learned so we have gotten a few questions and I know there have been some questions answered in the Q&A about the difference between world history and world history honors or any CP class and honors class the general difference is that there's a different level of complexity in the work required additional and more complex readings asking students to go deeper in their critical thinking and requiring them to work more independently so in both courses the teachers do scaffold and support student Learners we're hoping that students who take world history do some additional in-depth preparation so that they are prepared to take more rigorous courses including potentially AP African-American studies in their 10th grade year so I'm happy to answer any questions about the courses um you'll notice that um we also have a summer course that's added this is the first summer course in the humanities for wwp it's brand new this year and we're excited that it's an interdisciplinary course so if your child is interested in literacy or they're interested in social studies or they're interested in the Arts the idea is that this course is going to bring all of those together and have the students learn from a really rich set of sources related to Asian-American and Pacific Islander studies the course just like science and math will run through Community Education in the month of July students will receive two and a half wwp credits for the cost of $500 um I will be honest as a parent who shops for summer camps for school AG kids it's a huge deal a lot of camps are $500 a week and this is $500 for four weeks with certified teachers I will say that I'm also very picky when I'm shopping for summer courses and the fact that your child would be with wwp students with wwp certified teachers with our high quality curriculum and high quality resources it's an awesome opportunity for kids I'm looking forward to um developing the course in conjunction with both literacy and social studies teachers so that kids really see the joy and the agency within the Asian-American andic specific Islander communities learning about the diversity within that community and being able to creatively Express what they've learned so I see a couple questions popping up um which we'll get to um these in-person courses are designed to be one in-person course per summer they all run at the same time and the idea is that your child will be building relationships with the teachers and students in that course um the course is also design designed to be four weeks and um later in the presentation we'll review how beneficial it is for uh child to take a course that is designed for four weeks with our Educators as compared to some of the other options out there so I'm happy to answer questions about the new summer course and we welcome suggestions about building the curriculum for this course um drini maybe you could just mention a little bit about how it impacts uh students transcripts and or GPA just because there were a number of questions about that so rather than answering all of those individually so there the course as I had mentioned is 2.5 wwp credits which means it will be on students transcripts it will factor into their GPA the course is available for both CP or honors credit so students get to choose and the honors class way more heavily in a student's GPA um so there are options about um how it will impact your transcript um but again it will come from wwp andb transcripted credit there is a frequently asked questions document that goes over all of this information in writing for each particular course this the transcripted credit pieces that I'm describing and how the credit will count as part of the GPA is the same across all the wwp inperson summer courses it's in writing on the Community Education website specific to each course I I would now like to introduce Miss Kristen wolf for mathematics thanks Dr good evening my name is Kristen wolf and I wanted to talk to you about the options that we have for mathematics the different courses that are listed here are the options for our nth grade students but we are actually going to move fairly quickly to the next slide uh because that shows the totality of the pathway and we'll spend most of our time looking at that it is important to understand where our students are coming from it's very important that here in wwp we believe that all Learners should have access to rigorous highlevel mathematical content and we believe that all students can and will be able to grow as mathematicians the course sequence Pathways chart here shows the different options that are available simply based on entry points into our very high level mathematics courses so in order to discern which course your student will be eligible for in 9th grade it's important to look across the e8th grade year to see which course that they are currently in students who are in our math 8 course currently in 8th grade will be eligible for Algebra 1 in 9th grade students who are in our Algebra 1 or Algebra 1 honors will be eligible for either Algebra 2 or Algebra 2 honors and the criteria for that is outlined in the program of studies and has been mentioned before and we can certainly review that as needed and students who are currently in our Algebra 2 h& course will be eligible for the geometry h& course in 9th grade it is important to note that across all of these different courses we believe that all students are working to develop a growth mindset and we are helping encourage that along the way one of the reasons that it's important to look at this in the totality of the course Pathways is to understand that there are so many options available to our students my advice is to really think critically about the ninth grade year and then to work with your child's counselor to start mapping out and thinking about goals for future courses as well you will notice that as a district we offer all of the AP courses that are available for for mathematics and students have access to them throughout the various Pathways in terms of their learning and their progression throughout their sequence one of the things that I wanted to highlight if we move to the next slide is the fact that we have several highquality summer courses as well similar to what Dr St and drini have noted for both social studies and science we do have three different mathematics course options and two of them are available to our Rising ninth graders as well depending on their levels of math you will notice that there are different prerequisites that are listed based on Algebra 1 versus Algebra 2 we do have introduction to data science introduction to discrete math and then for students who complete discrete math they are eligible to take discrete math part to in a subsequent summer I highly recommend these courses our teachers speak very very highly of the interactions with students they have been running for a couple of years now and they have had fabulous success for our students as well as our teachers similar to what has been mentioned before they provide access uh to wwp course credit it is two and a half credits and it shows uh that students have a passion for mathematics and are working to develop and further their understanding the community education links as several people have asked about are posted that have the FAQ documents uh to look at not only the mathematics courses but also to look at uh both the science and the social studies courses as well if you have any specific questions related to your child's progression in mathematics I am more than happy to answer those questions certainly if they are General and can be answered in the Q&A I can answer there uh but also please do not hesitate to follow up via email or a phone call as needed I look forward to encouraging your child's mathematics Journey wherever that journey is currently and wherever we are looking to go uh because I know that we are working together to develop highquality mathematicians so at this point I'd like to turn it over to Mr Jeff Santoro all right thank you uh Miss wolf hi everybody I'm Jeff Santoro I'm the supervisor for and Performing Arts in the district uh welcome to South you are all about to have your children leave one very fine Fin and performing arts program and step into another at South um I'm going to go into our offerings in just a moment but I'm going to answer two frequently answered questions right off the bat because I know these are common ones we get every year so one is that while I'm going to talk about each of these courses um in terms of what eighth grade course might be a good um lead into some of these it's good for everyone to know that anyone can take any of these classes that you see on the slide right now they're open to all ninth grade students and the second thing I want to make sure everyone is uh aware of is I get this question a lot my uh my child really likes music and wants to stay in the music program but also wants to do art or wants to take art but also wants to take a theater class um if you go back and look at the slide of graduation requirements just remember that anything not on there that your student student takes in high school is an elective so it is possible to take more than one arts class over the course of um their four years at the high school e and still meet all the graduation requirements and still have a rigorous transcript and all those things um so that is possible in fact many of our students are involved in um a finer performing arts class all four years and some when they get to Junior and Senior year even take sometimes two or three of them so those are all the options that are available to you um so let's start with art um we have two courses available to nth graders uh Art Foundation is a survey course that covers all of the um I would say typical ways students engage in art um drawing painting 3D sculpture um uh print making all the different types of art that they probably have experienced little bits of in elementary and middle school this is a ful year course that really covers all of those areas pretty comprehensively and then we have computer Art and Design which is exactly like it sounds it's an art class taught on computers um I find this to be a very um good option for students who are creative and artistic um but maybe don't see themselves as um enjoying drawing and painting and the more traditional things so these are our two ninth grade options they're both wonderful choices to start off a high school visual art um Foundation um moving on to dance our ninth grade uh dance course is called world dance and uh that name is a good description of what it covers because uh it teaches students all the different types of dance that you would find in American or Western cultures but also pulls in um elements from dance from all around the world and this is a course that's open to students who have Dance Experience and also students who have never danced before so um I know we have a lot of dancers in the community um who do dance outside of school this is a a perfect opportunity for them to do that in school as well so that's our ninth grade dance offering um in music uh the easiest way to uh think about this is uh concert band is the ninth grade version of eighth grade band Corral is the ninth grade version of e8th grade choir and string Ensemble is the ninth grade version of eighth grade Orchestra so while these courses are open to all students if your child is in band Orchestra or choir at Grover this year these would be the courses they would uh be enrolled in as ninth graders if they want to continue in their music Ensemble programs um if you have a student who is not in one of those programs or wants to try something different we also offer music theory uh which is a class that teaches all of the all of the why behind how Music Works um an interesting way to approach music that way and music technology um anyone who has a a Mac computer and plays around with garage band or likes to make music um electronically on a laptop or is interested in audio engineering or dejing these are all the types of things that are cover in our music technology course um that is a great place for students who love music listen to music all the time but have chosen not to be in our band Orchestra and choir program really great fit for them would be music technology um and finally our theater program uh our ninth grade class is called Theater Arts one it's a survey level course that covers all the different aspects of um being onstage and supporting onstage Productions um again the this is open to all students but if you're child was involved in either um the Performing Arts electives at Grover or was involved in the play or musical in middle school this is a really great option for them to continue their Theater Arts education as they come to the high school so that's an overview of our curricular offerings um we have a lot of extracurricular offerings in the Arts as well which I won't go into this evening but you can find information about them through District resources or reaching out to me um and if there's any questions uh please put them in the Q&A and I will be here answering while my colleagues uh go through their parts of the presentations um our next presenter couldn't be here this evening um that's Dr Rey who uh covers all of the 21st century life and careers courses um you can see them here there are courses available in computer science engineering family and consumer science business and media um if you click on that QR code or go to the tiny URL link you can get more information but um Dr Ray being our technology man has uh given us a beautiful YouTube video for uh you to hear what he has to say Dr G we're not getting the audio coming through I don't think can't hear it I can assure everyone what he's saying is amazing he's absolutely encouraging you to take his technology classes just we will uh we'll try to get this video playing for everybody just give us a second here absolutely and in the meantime we'll just answer some of the frequently asked questions we've seen in the Q&A did that come through so just as a reminder some folks have been asking will this be available and yes absolutely this video will be converted to a YouTube video and will be available for families folks have also answered what could they do if they have additional questions and as the counselors have pointed out the program of studies is an excellent resource to take a look at you can also feel free to reach out to any of us via email and we'd be happy to answer your questions can you hear it now no no you cannot if you want Dr G maybe we can move on and let uh Dr C or Mr Cooper do the uh multilingual learner part of the program we can come back and play this later all right I think we should move on so the presentation will be available as well so um parents you will be able to click on it and listen to Dr Ray's presentation I'm sorry that we weren't able to get the audio um I assure you he had great things to say and also if you click on the tiny URL there are also video clips of the different elective opportunities and you can even show them to um your children and there are some video clips of the classrooms themselves and students experiencing the different courses now I'd like to introduce um Mr Cooper who will talk about our programming for our multilingual Learners sure thank you very much uh your children are going to love South It's a Wonderful school I happen to have the privilege of uh being associated with our multilingual learning program that program is for students who are fluent in one or more languages other than English and they happen to be also learning English uh over the course of of their time in school uh if your child is at Grover Middle School in 8th grade and you have um Mrs Ali your child would be in the multilingual learning program if your child isn't working with Mrs Lee then your child would not be part of our program at the current time we have a number of courses that students would take in their ninth grade year um we have uh courses that for instance we call our high-intensity ml they are two courses they're worth a total of 10 credits each and they fulfill the the English language graduation requirement and the World Language graduation requirement and you'll see that there's uh ml level one ml level two three and four those are proficiency levels and so students who are uh just learning English they're learning greetings they're speaking in uh you know one-word responses developing vocabulary they're going to be in our level one program students who are uh speaking in extended discourse they're they're uh reading and writing and and uh multiple paragraphs together they would be in our uh level four courses and again they those two courses fulfill the World Language and the English graduation requirement we also have for our multilingual Learners uh sections of our world history and our science classes they're specifically designed to support our multilingual Learners and so we would have a section of world history that would have a uh multilingual learner teacher in the classroom with the social studies teacher to support your child having access to the world history content making uh accommodations for for language and especally teaching into the history content and also supporting uh the learning of of English Reading Writing speaking and listening we have a similar structure for our science program for our students who are um you know brand new to the country they are uh speaking in in short sentences uh students would normally take our our course called science one ml for multilingual Learners our students who have a little bit more proficiency would take our biology course for multilingual Learners that course is taught by a science teacher and a multilingual learning teacher who would co- te the class and they would support each other um over the course of the year um in order to decide which is the appropriate course Mrs Ali the e8th grade U multilingual learning teacher is a great um person to talk to our guidance counselors are great individuals and I can also be a resource to help you um with that as well uh students also would attend instead of uh going to a study hall they would go to a multilingual learning tutorial and that is a uh special design study hall a special uh course for uh our our our multilingual learning teachers to meet with our students and support them um in their their uh high school years uh Barb can we go and talk a little about the AVID program so in addition through the multilingual learning program I also um work with our AVID program Avid is an acronym for advancement via individual determination it is a 4-year high school program for students who um we're going to develop uh College preparation skills uh it's a chance for students to instead of going to a study hall they would meet with an avid teacher um and a guidance counselor frequently uh to uh talk about college skills uh we would work on the development of of organization skills and study skills we explicitly work on writing strategies to support students across all of their their courses and so some of the the writing strategies that we would work on in the Avid class uh would support their their reading and their writing and their nth grade English class or in their nth grade world history class uh we also over the course of four years of the AVID program we visit college campuses we explore different college options across the country um and we work on developing team build skills and uh some service to the community uh we are com committed to supporting students with academic success Barb could you advance that please so who is this for uh Avid is for students that they may be first generation college students that you know perhaps the you know Mom and Dad haven't gone to college um but there students who are explicit expressing a desire to to go to college and they're going to work really hard uh to repair for it often in the middle school we see that our students are are get our B students C students um they're really however committed to being successful um perhaps they uh fall into a group that's generally underrepresented College uh they are are first generation college students uh they may qualify for free or reduced lunch but there's perhaps other special circumstances that that might inhibit the the the family's ability to to seek college assistance on their own um we're going to be reaching out to All Families um I'll send you email about uh future um presentations that we're going to do about the AVID program and so I'm going to invite you all for another evening to uh have a a AR to learn a little bit more about the AVID program uh we'll be also visiting um uh students and we'll be having individual conversations with with many of your your children to see if they're interested in it um if you are interested in finding out more about it uh we have some materials here that are available on the um on the QR code you can also reach out to me and we can talk and I'll share some of our resources uh we have a promo video um so you can hear from our Avid teachers and our avid students uh it's a wonderful program to support students again over the course of four years um and we had a great track record of our our kids uh attending some outstanding universities and colleges uh last year really proud of the work that that our teachers and our our counselors and our students have done thank you good evening I'm Kate dobinson I am the co-supervisor of health and PE at High School South and I'm also the athletic director at High School South and Grover Middle School um I'm going to you know reiterate what my colleagues opportunities for your students to get involved um and just really flourish uh within their high school years it appears that miss dobinson is frozen it is quite cold out sorry we need there are connectivity issues um if you're anywhere near Hamilton or Robinsville they did slice a fiberoptic cable uh which is uh cut off a number of residents in this area from their online Internet connection tonight so that's being replaced but it's inter I I I'm back oh there you are yay y that was quick um sorry everybody um but our physical education really looks at the Lifetime Fitness it's uh we take part in different um activities that students would be able to bring into their post high school years as well um we have have a wonderful facility um available to our students we have two full-size gyms we have a swimming pool we're one of the the few high schools within the um Mercer County area with our own swimming pool um and our students do take a swim unit um we have a weit room our 10th graders take place or take part in Project Adventure which is our climbing course uh we have an all-purpose turf field grass field and an all-weather track so there's a lot of different activ ities that we can utilize and get the students involved with um throughout their PE programming um as I said students will take a quarter of health education um it'll focus on positive and responsible decision-making through a variety of topics we we talk about human relationships um we talk about substance abuse mental health to be able to prepare them for the next stage of life but also um in 10th Grade they will go through their driver's education um and be able to uh learn the the rules of the road as they prepare to get their driers permit and eventually their driver's license um Dr G can you move to the next slide okay so just a little bit more within our um as we progress up to 10th grade um in driver's end and have them become responsible safe drivers um we also eventually will have available to students um as they get into 10th 11th and 12th grade we have an elective known as Sports Medicine um this is a great program that allows our students to be able to think about maybe what they want to do Post High School whether they want to go into medicine whe they want to go into Athletics or athletic training or physical therapy um this class is taught by our certified athletic trainer and the students have a lot of different Hands-On activities as well within that course um we have developed a unified physical education course at this current time this course is available at high school north um because it works uh our students get to work and integrate and um uh with our track program over at High School North so next slide please so one of the biggest questions I get as the athletic director is why should my student participate in athletics at wwp um you know I I'm probably a little biased here but I feel very strongly that Athletics give our students a different way um different opportunities different Avenues to learn leadership skills and skills that they would learn outside of the classroom um and we are solely based within education-based Athletics which means our athletic fields our Athletics programs is an extension of our classroom environment our coaches are teacher coaches um and they are working with with our students to develop uh time management skills leadership skills teamwork um how to work within difficult situations how to create a sense of belonging uh wwp is a member of the colonial Valley Conference so we play schools within the Mercer County areas um and we also develop a schedule that will have um schools from different conferences around the state as well we are also a member School of the governing body of high school Scholastic Athletics which is the njs AA uh next slide please um our athletic offerings uh we have a lot of different athletic programs um you know if you take a look at the slide here it gives you the breakdown of what's available in fall winter and spring um I do want to kind of reiterate what was said earlier tonight is that it is important um if your student athlete is looking to play at the high school level and I greatly encourage that um that you pay attention to the different registration dates but also the calendar that comes out when those registrations are open because it'll give you the timeline of when preseason starts um High School athletics is is different than Middle School athletics we do practice six days a week Monday through Saturday um and we will be practicing and have competitions over long weekends over winter breaks and different things like like that um and I tell you this so that you can plan because part of being the team is making sure that students are all at practices um and being committed to the program um and we find that when we have that commitment and you know everyone knows the schedule in advance it helps everything move a lot smoothly um so if you have any questions in regards to health and PE or Athletics please do not hesitate to reach out to me and I look forward to welcoming you to High School South in September thank you in addition to Athletics um the high school also offers numerous um extracurricular activities that students are a part of both uh extracurricular activities that involve you know teachers and Educators that facilitate these activities as well as we also have a number of students student Le clubs and here are just I would say very few that are listed on this particular slide um I would say we have probably close to 100 different activities that students can participate in and in the fall um there's a student fair that um students can you know really take a look at and and think about all of the areas that they have in terms of their passions and consider where they might want to be involved but I would say the most important part to think about um as a student and as a a parent is really to encourage them to get involved at the high school because the more involved they are in the school community and the school culture the more friendships um the most more social connections and also connections with other adults and mentors in the school community and that's a really important part of a school's uh a child's um life as a high school and it's really important that that part of their academic career is also fostered at the high school level so here are some of our extracurricular activities but there are so many more that students can become a part of and now Dr stack will talk with us about option two please uh before asking questions in the chat of that option two please um listen to all of the different slides and then if you have questions um you can add them into the Q&A thank you Dr gold um thank you everyone for uh allowing me to be back on and talk with you about about option two uh I'm going to speak from the point of view as we all are of being a professional educator and keeping your child's best interests in mind because that is the most important consideration option two according to New Jersey Administrative Code permits District's Board of Education to determine established curricular activities and programs aimed at achieving The Core Curriculum content standards for promotion and graduation purposes op2 serves has an alternative to Traditional High School courses not as a supplement or a supplanting of that and involves in-depth experiences that may be provided by School District Personnel or instructors not employed in the district next slide please option two website is available for you all the information on testing dates um you know rules and regulations regarding course selection and duration and criteria are all there uh courses must be pre-approved must be from an accredited institution and the lists are there online uh if you have any questions about them uh I would reach out to those individual providers first because it is incumbent upon anyone choosing to take an option to course to to match what that Learning Center or educational facility offering that course match that with our Core Curriculum um which is posted on our District's website uh must beat New Jersey student learning standards students must show minimum proficiency to ear proficiency to earn wwp credit that's a 70% earned exam but they must also pass the corresponding course according to our for example our Hors program of getting you know a be or better to be able to use that class uh to then satisfy a prerequisite uh there's an April 1st deadline for summer work to register and to sign up so make sure you're aware of that also option to districts assessments are given on August 11th and the 18th you're limited to one course per school year if you're taking a summer course with us which are designed to be summer courses two and a half credits meet three hours a day for the five weeks that they're engaged but they are designed knowing that the courses that they're taking uh will fit and will meet those kids' needs without the extra work that comes with an option to course there's also a limit of one per content area courses may not be retaken for credit courses must be completed by the fall of senior year for those courses that are eligible to be extended therein and a prior year assessment information is available on that link I would encourage you to study that closely you'll notice that the passing rates are not very good it's very hard for students to take a five-week course and to master the content as it's applied through practice-based experiences in in that time frame it's very very very challenging and we'll talk more about that on the next slide okay option two What It Is What It Isn't what it is it's optional it's not required and students should have a conversation with their school counselor along with you your the parents of our of your children about why and how it fits into their four-year plan as I mentioned earlier as many of my distinguished colleagues had hearkened upon it's very important that your child choose strategically Choose Wisely the path of academic experiences as they go through there are four very short years of high school we need to work together to make the most of this it is a way to take a course for credit that you cannot access in our high schools that's what I mentioned earlier it's not designed to supplant the program of study so if there's a course at PRS River North at uh uh Montclair High School that we do not offer uh students can take that course and then uh transfer that course uh for credit on their transcript it's what option two was designed to feed a student's passion to provide opportunities for learning hence the growth of our summer program to meet those kids where they are so we can provide their passionate experiences with us and it is a way to complete graduation requirements if you have a scheding conflict like shareed time attendance at MCTS what it is not is something that everybody does not everybody takes an option two course not everybody's required to take an option two course it is not a replacement of the highquality program you get in the Westminster Plainsboro Regional School District by the most highly trained able and capable teachers I sound biased cuz I am because I witnessed a fantastic education that your children get every day across all disciplines it is not designed to replace that anymore then a diet of fast food is best for your child versus the quality nutrition that your doctors and you as parents provide them every single day next slide please okay real talk about this I'm going to be a little Frank here but certainly respectful and honorable colleges and universities do not care if you take an option to course remember your why as I mentioned earlier your strategic decisions your children's passion they want to be scientists engineers linguists journalists artists mathematicians etc etc etc their course selection should be designed to support that intentionally working with your child school counselor working with many of us on on this call tonight we will help you do that option two calls the students and their parents a tremendous amount of undue stress the overwhelming majority of option two course reviews that I personally have conducted going into the fall typically September and October and they should they extended even into November was a quick review of the course uh assessment and then a much longer conversation on how the student is not a failure you will recover from this this is not determining your your your Excellence as a student okay it's it's designed to again provide a passionate experience for kids not a stressful experience taking a six8 week course on or an online self-pace course is not a good replacement for the 40we course taught by our teachers if you're truly passionate about the discipline about whatever you want to learn you will Avail yourself of the full year experience provided by our teaching staff that's the best way to make the best student and to prepare them for the best life out ahead of them the pacing of option two courses is very accelerated it is difficult to absorb let alone process retain and transfer that much material in such a short period of time you've seen this happen you've known people who've taken option two courses when I was in high school I took a summer course of chemistry for five weeks all I did was eat sleep and breathe chemistry I was miserable I never did that to myself again I I wouldn't recommend that either for any children who truly are interested in this in their area of of preference something they truly want to learn more about also colleges and universities want to see commitment to a program leadership and well-rounded students students need to have time to engage in activities Sports work and still have time to be people that's what your cross-curricular program of high school is designed to make your child well-rounded have time to experience team sports to have time to experience Summer music have time to experience World language language arts social studies that's what your high school program is designed for No One expects students to take more courses than what fits into your child's school day up to 1 o'clock in the morning in middle of July is not the way to help your child be the best they can be and there are many many other meaningful engaging life-changing experiences students can have during their Summers sign up for our summer courses we did that on purpose we know your children want to learn in the summer come with us let's let's do it together and there are tremendous choices that are being offered for your child uh next slide please speaking of Summer courses here are the recommendations and registrations drini had alluded to earlier along with um um Miss wolf as well and these are this is this is the go-to page for what you want to find out more about uh for caretakers interested in Academic Program uh our inperson summer courses they run through the Community Education uh uh program they start on July 7th and run through August 1st please make sure you're taking the time to educate yourself on these opportunities for children have that engaging and meaningful conversation with your child reach out to your school counselor Administration teachers and staff here stand in suppor of you list do this together thank you very much for your time thank you so much for your time this evening uh we really enjoyed sharing with you the program of studies as there students transition from 8th grade into 9th grade as we mentioned earlier the presentation was recorded and will be posted on the district website as well as the slide deck so that you can access all of the links that were shared this evening um please take a look at all of the information should you need to reference any of the information again and um as we shared earlier thank you so much uh for all of the questions and the engagement as families and uh we are looking forward to seeing all of our Grover students be nth graders at High School South so thank you and have a great evening stay warm everyone e for