By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
With the current school year nearly halfway complete, Waterford Union High School officials are turning their attention toward next year with course selections.
In an effort to meet students’ needs for academic rigor and harness the latest in technology, WUHS administrators presented the School Board with three course proposals Nov. 19. The trio will be added to the high school course bulletin in the 2015-16 school year.
Two of the courses — algebra programming applications I and applications II — will be offered through the high school’s math department.
A third course, video game development, will be added under the business education department’s umbrella of offerings in the next school year.
The board was overwhelmingly supportive of the course additions, which were vetted by administrators after being proposed by an assembled Academic Standards Committee that included input from school faculty.
While he voted in favor of it, board member Dan Jensen did question the rationale behind the addition of the video game development course.
“You can’t get a job doing that right now,” Jensen commented. “It’s cute, but I’m not sure how it’s going to change anybody’s life.”
As an alternative, Jensen suggested WUHS consider incorporating a course on developing apps for phones, tablets and other Smart devices.
In response to Jensen’s query, Superintendent Keith Brandstetter said the video gaming course is designed to provide interested students with a basic understanding of the discipline.
“We know programming is where it’s at,” Brandstetter said, adding that video game development “is more about getting students into the door.”
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