The District 219 Board of Education voted on  the Annual Review of Programs (ARP) at its December meeting.

This year’s proposed ARP included many big changes such as starting the school year more than a week earlier in order to have finals before Winter Break and end the year before Memorial Day, eliminating stand-alone honors English and history classes at the junior level and requiring students to take two years of a foreign language as a graduation requirement. Not all recommendations were approved.

The biggest point of contention at the Board meeting was the proposal to combine the English and Social Studies departments into one Humanities Department under a common director. Two Niles West social studies teachers, Chris Schwarz and Joe Meyer, came forward to read a statement signed by most of the teachers in the English and Social Studies departments from both Niles North and Niles West. Staff opposed the shift to a Humanities Department for several reasons, one of was that they didn’t have an opportunity to voice their opinion on this proposal.

“We did not have any understanding of what this was until [the last Board meeting on] Nov. 26,” Schwarz said. “[We] have not been provided with the discussion needed for this sort of change.”

Niles North English teacher Jim Haberl also spoke out against the proposal, citing the merits of having two separate departments currently. A main concern he brought up was the organization of department leadership should D219 move to have a Humanities Department and one common director instead of separate English and Social Studies departments and directors, respectively. “I don’t see how removing a [department] director or having a director be less available would benefit students,” he said.

Despite the prepared statements from staff members and heated debate about the topic prior to voting on the ARP, the Board ultimately made the recommendation to create a Humanities Department led by a common director for the 2014-2015 school year.

The Board approved numerous other recommendations being made in the ARP, such as the new school year calendar, but tabled or voted against other recommendations such as the elimination of stand-alone honors English and history classes at the junior level, requiring students to have a  lunch period and requiring students to take two years of a foreign language to graduate.

For a full summary of the changes that were proposed, whether or not they’ll be executed, and extensive feedback from various forums and surveys, click here.