(This article, reprinted with permission, featuring high school happenings, appeared in the Eastside Messenger on January 19, 2004.)

Bexley students will have new AP classes
By John Matuszak
Eastside Editor

Bexley High School students will have three new Advanced Placement courses to choose from in the next school year, with additional opportunities available through new construction.

At the Jan. 12 meeting, the school board approved creation of AP classes in computer science, U.S. government and politics, and art history.

The board also approved new courses for freshmen in world studies and honors world studies.

Anne Hyland, director of curriculum and instruction, commented that this is part of the district’s effort to increase the high level opportunities available to high school students.

Chris Maisenbacher, who will teach the AP computer science course, said the addition wouldn’t have been possible without the new Arts and Technology wing that opened last year.

Maisenbacher said when he came to the business department 15 years ago, it was “a shambles.”

The new AP course “is another step in building up the business department,” he told the board.

Bexley High Principal John Kellogg said that the courses can be taught without adding staff.

Hardware and software for the computer course will cost about $6,000, Maisenbacher estimated.

To accommodate the freshman world studies class, a speech course requirement will be moved to the junior and senior years, Kellogg said.

Staff will be looking at other ways to make student schedules more flexible to allow for the advanced courses, the principal added.

A “zero period” could be offered, beginning at 7:10 a.m. to extend a student’s schedule, Kellogg said.

He also suggested that physical education and health courses could be offered in summer school.

Additional computer lab hours required could be taken during study hall periods or in the morning, Maisenbacher said.

However it is handled, there is room in the student schedule, he said. “A kid has 28 shots to get 21 credits – seven periods over four years. The room is there.”
Kellogg said he has seen a high interest in the Advanced Placement courses, with students asking when they might be available.

There also has been an increase in students taking AP tests, he noted.

Last year, the school board, on the recommendation of Supt. Mike Johnson, made the tests mandatory for all students taking AP courses. The district also agreed to pay for the tests.

Johnson pushed for requiring the tests as a way to measure student progress.

Concern was expressed at the time that making the tests mandatory would mean fewer students opting to take AP courses.

This hasn’t been the case.

Even before the policy went into effect, the number taking AP tests jumped from 60 students taking 90 tests to 90 students taking 120 tests, Kellogg said.

He expects the number to exceed 200 this year.

Johnson praised the instructors who worked to create the new courses.
“It’s not easy. Teachers have to make a commitment, and receive extra training,” Johnson pointed out.
Bexley will have more courses, but how many kids will be here to sign up?

Projections show that the district’s enrollment will ride a roller coaster over the next several years, the superintendent reported.

For the past two years, Bexley enrollment had decreased, Johnson told the board. But this year, the numbers are up, and are expected to rise slightly for the 2004 school year.

The enrollment for the current school year is 2,219. Next fall it is estimated to be 2,227.

Bexley is a relatively young community with a high birth rate, Johnson said.

Also, about 58 percent of families have children age 18 and younger. The rate for other “first tier” suburbs is about 30 percent.

Kindergarten enrollment is most likely to be 137 in the fall, up from 124 this year. The following year, that number could rise to 160, and might possibly hit 200 down the road, Johnson said, matching high school grades.

The district could experience steep enrollment declines in other grades, he continued. The middle school, now at 416, could drop to as low as 250.

A “worst-case scenario” has the high school down to 550 or 500 students, Johnson said. Enrollment in the fall is expected to be 803.

It will be a challenge for the district in the next four years to manage its enrollment numbers.

Johnson plans to bring recommendations for staffing patterns to the board in its February meeting.

Enrollment won’t be the only thing dropping in the district.

In presenting his five-year financial plan, Treasurer Chris Essman reported that the district will have a deficit by 2006, making it necessary to secure additional revenue by 2005.

Declining state funding, and decreases in valuation on personal property and utilities, are the causes of the looming deficit, Essman said.

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