PLACENTIA YORBA LINDA : Requirements Might Change for Diploma

The school board will consider a change in high school graduation requirements at its meeting tonight.

The changes for Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District students would include reducing physical education requirements from three years to two years and eliminating driver’s education as a required course.

The changes are being recommended by an advisory committee that includes several high school and middle school principals.

“We looked at adjusting the curriculum to meet the needs of modern high school students,” said committee member Joe Quartucci, principal at Esperanza High School. “We haven’t made many changes in curriculum in 50 years.”

Quartucci, who until last month was principal at Valencia High School, said reducing the physical education requirement would give juniors and seniors more flexibility in the schedules.

“This is not an indictment of the P.E. program,” he said. “We need flexibility for students to establish career paths and to establish program majors for 11th- and 12th-grade students.”

The committee said changing driver’s education from a required course to an elective and offering it before or after school or on Saturday would also result in greater scheduling flexibility for students.

A third recommendation would shift world history to 10th grade; it is now taught in the ninth grade.

If the board approves the curriculum changes, they will go into effect this September for students entering ninth and 10th grade. Juniors and seniors would meet current graduation requirements.