Elective Courses

There has been rumor at RHAM that there will be a cut in the elective courses offered. Yet it is still undecided which courses or even if there is a need to cut any courses. It all depends on the Arbitrators' decision regarding the teacher contracts and salaries. The decision is supposed to be made by February 23rd. This decision will allow the administration to draft a budget that they will then present to the Board of Ed.

There are two different types of budgets that the Board will be choosing from. There is a continuation budget, meaning that the school will continue on with what they are doing, and with the same budget that they currently have. This will be cause for the cutting of elective courses due to the growing class sizes in the school. There is also the 2 and a half percent increase budget. This would allow the school to hire new teachers to be able to teach all of the now offered elective courses.

Once the Board agrees with the budget proposal they present it to the three towns, Andover, Marlborough, and Hebron, and the towns will vote. If it gets denied then the budget will go for revision and go for another vote, this will continue until a budget is agreed upon by all of the towns.

This year RHAM is having its students select courses earlier so that they can figure out the demand for teachers for elective courses. Also Mr. Leslie is takng the number of students and figuring out the number of core classes, such as English or math for underclassmen, that are needed so that they are not overflowing with students. If a budget passes that allows the school to have enough money to hire the teachers that are necessary then there will be no cuts in the elective courses. Yet if the budget does not allow the school to hire new teachers, then the school will start to have to cut elective courses in the departments that are short of teachers.

The way that the administration is going to decide to cut courses is not strictly based on the number of students signed up. The other major factor that will be a part in the decisions is value of the class to the students as well as their future. If it is a class that a student could find elsewhere, such as online, or that is very similar to another course offered then it might be one of the first to be cut.

Keep looking for updates on this subject as the story develops.