The Kanawha County school board moved Monday toward making curriculum changes - including some local teacher customizations - in several subjects.
The board, which voted unanimously in all decisions Monday, approved three new Capital High elective literature courses that Missy Ruddle, Kanawha's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said teachers developed for students there. They are Medieval Epic Literature, Hillbilly Highway: A Journey Through Appalachian Literature and Speculative Literature: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Magical Realism.
The county board also OK'd seeking a waiver from the state Board of Education to be allowed to use local teacher-designed custom curricula - instead of adopting state school board-approved textbooks and other instructional materials - for the high school chemistry, physics and physical science elective courses.
The state plans to make Earth and space science the statewide mandatory ninth-grade science course next school year, meaning the current ninth-grade requirement of physical science would become optional.
Ruddle said the elective science courses will each have a non-textbook curriculum that will provide students everything they need on their school-issued tablet computers.
Rosalie Rhodes, Kanawha's science curriculum specialist for the middle and high school levels, said about five high schools have been piloting the curricula this school year. She said they've had great success, and not purchasing textbooks could free up money to buy more science materials for "hands-on" activities.
Rhodes said the county also plans to use a custom curriculum for the high school environmental science elective, but the local school board doesn't have to request state approval for that because the state has no approved "multiple list" of instructional materials for that course.
The West Virginia Department of Education pushed a bill in this year's legislative session that would have given counties more flexibility in selecting instructional materials by moving away from the "multiple list," from which local school boards are currently limited to choosing their primary resources. Despite passing nearly unanimously in the House of Delegates, though, House Bill 4445 didn't get out of the Senate before the session ended last month.
The Kanawha board also approved requesting another waiver from the state school board to adopt instructional materials for middle school visual arts from Columbus, Ohio-based McGraw-Hill Education that aren't on the "multiple list."
The Kanawha board also had first readings of teacher committees' recommended instructional materials for elementary, middle and high school science and music. Ruddle expects the local board's final approval next month.
Kanawha's move toward adopting materials aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards national blueprint comes after the failure during this year's legislative session of a bill that would have - in the form the House originally passed - blocked the state's implementation of those education standards next school year, partly over objections to their teaching of human influence on global warming.
Also Monday, the board voted to again approve a contract extension for Superintendent Ron Duerring that will maintain his current $160,650 annual salary next school year. The board unanimously approved the same one-year contract extension at a meeting late last month, but school employees said an item regarding approval of the superintendent's contract was mistakenly left off the agenda for that meeting.
For a governing body to take official action on an issue, generally that issue must be listed on an agenda. The agendas did say "superintendent's evaluation" - a process that can be used to determine whether to extend a superintendent's contract.
"Just because there was some question as to whether it was supposed to be on the agenda or not, rather be safe than sorry," said board general counsel Jim Withrow.
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.