In an average year, Homestead sends five or six class change, addition or deletion proposals to the school board. This year’s total? 29.

Although many of the proposals are simply course name changes, several proposals will create significant changes if approved by the school board. In English, the proposed deletion of Honors American Studies and addition of English Language and Seminar are the most notable proposals, according to Mr. Brett Bowers, principal. In World Language, the deletion of German 4 and the addition of Chinese 4 and Latin 5 have been proposed, and in Social Studies, the school board will decide whether to reduce AP Macroeconomics and AP Government to one trimester, and whether to allow freshmen to enroll in AP Psychology. The deletion of Honors World Studies has also been proposed, which will be replaced by a freshman-only section of AP Human Geography for students on the honors course.

Due to a consistent lack of technical education teachers, Mr. Bowers and the Allied Arts Department have proposed to remove Autos 1, Home Improvement and Highlander Printing from the curriculum. Mr. Bowers said these deletions have been proposed “purely because we can’t find a teacher.”

Because of the lack of instructors for these courses, students are disappointed when they register for one of these courses and end up having to drop it and replace it with a different course they do not want to take, according to Mr. Bowers. Thus, Mr. Bowers believes canceling these courses and helping students locate another campus to take similar ones will provide a more logical alternative.

“Kids will know we’re not offering these courses, and we can plan for them to take the classes somewhere else, such as a neighboring campus or MATC,” Mr. Bowers said. “We’ve realized at this point that we’ve made a very concerted effort to get a teacher and we have to do something different.”

In addition to the proposed deletions, Homestead has proposed to add PLTW: Digital Electronics and Robotics 1, as they have located teachers qualified to lead these courses. Homestead has never offered curricular robotics.

Mr. Bowers said the shortage of technical education teachers is an issue across the state, as the University of Wisconsin-Stout is the only state university to graduate licensed technical education instructors, and only about 20 graduate from this program every year. Although Wisconsin now allows non-certified teachers to teach technical education classes, as long as “they pass a test proving they are knowledgeable,” according to the Wisconsin State Journal, Mr. Bowers said none of the past candidates have been a good fit for Homestead. He also said that the position at Homestead is particularly unappealing, as the teacher would be the only one in the department, and because he or she would teach only three classes, while a full-time teacher teaches 12.

Despite the teacher shortage, students still wish Homestead would offer a more diverse range of technical classes. “Many see our school as one of the top schools around due the focus on college preparatory courses, overall academics and athletics, but people do not see the failed potential to offer a wide variety of hands-on and skilled-based classes to all students,” Fred Bucholtz, senior, said. “It’s a shame that we would have to go to a different school to take these courses when we have a entire lab of tools and equipment that sits unused.”

The school board will discuss these proposed changes on Nov. 2, and announce their decisions on Nov. 16.