Carroll Independent School District trustees have approved multiple new courses to offer students for the 2025-2026 school year, including a class on the biblical foundations of Western civilization.
During Monday night’s board meeting, Carroll ISD trustees unanimously approved 11 of the 12 courses proposed.
The courses include Biblical Foundations: The Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament in Western Civilization, Practicum in Culinary Arts, Student to Industry Connection, Activities for Daily Living, Pathophysiology, Audio/Video Production III – Sports Media and Communication, Partners in Art I, Partners in Theatre I, General Employability Skills, and Career Preparation I-A and II-A.
The only course trustees decided to remove was Beginning Photography since it was not efficient for the district’s budget.
“When we’re looking at staffing efficiencies, we obviously don’t know who would teach it, but if you’re looking at it starting in 11th grade, and we already have photography one and two, where you can start as a junior, I don’t know what the benefit of adding this to would be to our action, to our course load,” said Trustee Christy Stacy.
According to Executive Director for Curriculum & Instruction Gina Peddy, the district’s general practice for keeping or removing a course includes having at least 12 students enrolled in the course.
Superintendent Jeremy Glenn chimed into the discussion noting that the district needs to be concerned about “maximizing our student, teacher ratio.”
“We don’t want to spread ourselves too thin, and so offering too many things, knowing that we’re also losing students year over year …at some point, we may have to look at that 12 to one ratio and say, ‘where is the break-even point?’”
Ultimately, all trustees decided to remove Beginning Photography from the course offerings. Peddy said that she could try to embed the course into the yearbook class or talk to the art instructors and see if they can add it to their current courses.
Texas Family Project President Brady Gray told Texas Scorecard that more schools should follow Carroll ISD’s lead in teaching children about biblical history.
“Carroll ISD continues to set itself apart,” said Gray. “It [the course] seeks to educate children in ways that matter and instill in them the virtues on which this great nation was founded. More schools should follow the lead of Carroll ISD, focusing on giving students the skills they need to be successful, productive members of society.”
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