Saddleback Valley : School Board Increases Course Requirements

The Saddleback Valley Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to increase the required number of basic courses to be taken by high school students, beginning with students who start school this fall.

The five-member board also voted unanimously to require that students attending the district’s high schools maintain a minimum grade-point average of 1.75, or a C minus, in order to graduate.

Deputy Supt. Donald Ames said students will have to complete four years of social science, three years of science, three years of math and four years of fine arts and foreign language study.

The district’s new requirements may be among the stiffest in the state, Ames said. “There aren’t many districts in the state, or perhaps even the nation, that require the number of years in those areas as we are requiring,” he said.

The district conducted surveys and studies on the issue for the last two years, he said. Public hearings and meetings between parent-teacher groups and school administrators also took place prior to the board’s decision.

The board also unanimously agreed to extend the length of a high school class period by two minutes, to 54 minutes. The average high school student, Ames said, attends six classes a day.