Keep family/consumer science course, school board tells staff
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Hillsborough schools are working to tweak curriculum to include more science, technology and engineering at the middle school without touching the family and consumer program too much.
A staff committee of administrators and teachers recommended to the board at the Jan. 28 meeting that the current industrial arts and family/consumer science be converted to a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) course with semester-long programs, probably beginning in the fall and with full implementation in the 2014-15 school year.
Joseph Tybulski, principal of the middle school, described an aggressive three-year plan to bring STEM programs that don’t exist at the middle school today.
He suggested the marking-period cycle for industrial arts, family/consumer science, art and music be changed to half-year courses that would merge industrial arts and family/consumer sciences into one semester and art/music in another semester. The target is 2014-15 for full implementation.
To go forward, a curriculum will have to be drafted or bought from one of two broadly used curricula in New Jersey, he said. This summer, there would be an emphasis on free teacher professional development at The College of New Jersey and revising the layout of industrial arts classrooms.
Dr. Tybulski said the board may see budget requests for increased extracurricular activities, like robotics, as well as an added stipend for a membership in the Technical Students Association or Women in Science and Engineering.
The board also may see facility requests like dedicating a wing of the middle school to science and technology and moving music and band to another location.
Superintendent Jorden Schiff said the board’s Education Committee wanted to keep the family/consumer science as is in 2013-14, and await more evaluation and data before a semester-long change is implemented.
Board member Thuy Anh Le said it was important to teach students basic, hands-on life skills of the family/consumer science and wood shop programs.
In the public portion, high school family/consumer science teacher Christine Kirsch said she was concerned the subject might be crimped at the middle school. She said it was “more than cooking and sewing” and touched on foods, nutrition and interior design. It integrated math, science, chemistry, art and other subjects every day, she said.
She said the course shows “why we need math and science because they are using it each and every day.”