They wouldn’t have to be rocket scientists. But next year’s freshmen in the Papillion-La Vista Public Schools would have to take an extra semester of science under a proposed change to district graduation requirements.
The school board Monday discussed raising the science requirement from five to six semesters to mirror new state graduation requirements.
The change would go into effect for the 2014 classes of Monarchs and Titans, currently eighth-graders.
Most graduates of Papillion-La Vista and Papillion-La Vista South High Schools already take six or more credits of science, district spokeswoman Annette Eyman said.
About nine of 10 students in the last two graduating classes took six or more.
Under this proposal, the typical student would take biology in ninth grade and physical science in 10th. Students would pick from a variety of classes in 11th and 12th grades, including chemistry, physics and anatomy.
Eyman said the district had been contemplating the change to its requirements before the Nebraska Board of Education last month adopted stiffer graduation requirements.
Beginning with the graduating class of 2015, Nebraska’s high school students will have to take a minimum of four years of English, along with three years each of math, science and social studies. Those changes brought Nebraska’s requirements in line with Iowa and several other Midwestern states.
Papillion-La Vista school board president Dan Flanagan said he would not oppose setting the district’s science requirements higher than the state minimum.
“I’m certainly not afraid of getting our kids’ challenges,” Flanagan said.
“What we’re setting is the floor, not the ceiling,” said Ron Hanson, Papillion-La Vista’s director of curriculum.
Because so many students already take three years of science, adding a semester should have little impact on staffing needs, he said.
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444-1077, joe.dejka@owh.com
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