At the Dec. 9 curriculum and technology committee meeting of the Salisbury Township School District held at Harry S Truman Elementary School, new course offerings for the high school were discussed and approved.

The new course offerings are in the computer science/family and consumer science curriculum and were introduced by teachers Sherry Wetherhold and Holly Borthwick.

The first course introduced was a textile course as part of the family and consumer science curriculum.

Borthwick said the course was created at the request of parents and students and was developed as a result of a successful textile club which was created in 2012 with between 12 and 18 members consistently.

The outline for the course includes history and social contributions of clothing design, fabric and design principles, basic sewing skill, construction principles, garment care/repair/recyle, final project planning, implementation and completion and career exploration.

Borthwick said the course would be offered maintaining the current staff for students in grades nine through 12 for one semester as a half credit elective. She would run the course as long as enough students are interested. The total funds needed for the course would be $400. Borthwick said there are currently 14 sewing machines, sewing notions, ironing supplies, fabric and other materials. There is an existing room and lab tables equipped for 20 to 24 students.

"This is a solid basic introductory course," Borthwick said.

She would like to see the course expand in working with the art department for weaving and painting fabrics and the theater department for costume design.

"Economics has a lot to do with the interest," Salisbury High School Principal Heather Morningstar said. "Kids are interested in reusing and recycling."

"I'm thrilled our staff listens to students and parents and puts together a course," boardmember Tom Mantz said.

The committee gave Borthwick the approval to proceed in developing a course description and curriculum.

Wetherhold proposed four new courses in the computer curriculum: computer basics, game programming, database and advanced computer. The proposed courses were developed after speaking with college professors and asking what skills students should have entering a computer science field.

The current offerings in the computer science curriculum include Java I, Java II, Visual Basic I, Visual Basic II, Web Page Design and Multimedia Design.

The computer basics course is a one semester elective geared toward students transferring to the district without technology experience and students who are having difficulty utilizing technology. The course outline includes keyboarding, file organization, software applications, digital citizenship, social networking, networking skills, business forms, web-based research and Web 2.0 tools.

Board member Robert Fischer said "these are basic skills and [this] should be a required course when they get the laptop." Fischer also suggested this be offered at the middle school.

Board member Sam DeFrank said the students can get this all for free and create self-assessments which are crucial.

"We have limited resources we shouldn't have to pay for this. I applaud this effort in trying to help transient students sharpen their skills. You need these skills to succeed," DeFrank said.

At the middle school, Principal Robert Cassidy said the only elective course is a foreign language in eighth grade. The library media specialist provides a special training for new students. It was also discussed keyboarding is no longer offered in the middle school and there is time in the students' schedules for computer assistance.

The second proposed course is game programming which is a one semester elective which would be offered on a rotating basis to students in grades nine through 12.

The course would utilize free software development tools Game Maker and Game Salad and would include history and genre, game design process, design trade-offs, implementation, mathematics and algorithms, game production and teams, debugging and testing, language and architecture, animation and business and legal issues.

Wetherhold said the only thing needed for the class would be one set of classroom textbooks and the development tools are free. No previous experience would be needed and there would be no prerequisite course.

"This is awesome," De Frank said.

Fisher asked about computer capability and Wetherhold said the existing computers can handle the software.

The third proposed course is database which would be a one semester rolling elective offered in the 2015-2016 school year for students in grades nine through 12. This course would utilize free software development tools (Oracle) and would include terminology, fundamentals and use, database careers, building and defining relationships, creating tables, maintaining and formatting tables, simple and advanced queries, creating forms and reports and SQL.

Wetherhold said there would be no addtional expense and she would like to see the students create a database for the school store inventory. Fischer suggested adding to the outline how databases are being used and the ethics of collecting information.

The advanced computer skills course, planned for the 2015-2016 school year, would include advanced word processing, advanced spreadsheets, database, presentation software and desktop publishing. The course was designed around college and employer expectations and student interest. There would be no additional expense to add the course.

Wetherhold was given the approval by the committee to proceed in developing course descriptions and curriculums.

Fischer supported the basic computer skills course but said he would like to defer a decision on where it would be offered. He would like to see it offered at the middle school.

Math department chair Kathy Meholic attended the meeting to gain approval for the math curriculum for students in grades six through 12 to prepare them for the rigorous standards of Common Core. "Tier 3 vocabulary becomes very important as we move into Common Core," Meholic said. "Students must now explain their work, not just solve the problems."

Fischer asked for prerequisite information to be added to the curriculum document. It was explained prerequisite information is included in the program of study documents given to students and parents each January.