The Westerville Board of Education voted Feb. 13 to revise two high school courses of study to reflect the district’s budget and staff reductions.

The board voted unanimously to create Accounting and Accounting II courses, 21st Century Skills, Career Planning and Trends in Technology. The board also voted to make the four high school AP science courses one credit each instead of 1.5 credits each.

The lower credit load for AP science will make the class length one time period each rather than 1.5.

“Now our teachers can be teaching more students in less amount of time,” said Jennifer Knapp, the district’s curriculum and instruction director.

With the $23 million in cuts anticipated after the failure of a proposed levy in November, the business and technology department will be reduced from 7.8 full-time employees to three full-time employees, or one per high school, Knapp said.

Overall, the high school science departments will lose four full-time employees, Knapp said, and the changes to the AP science courses will accommodate the loss of about one of those full-time employees.

The 21st Century Skills, Career Planning and Trends in Technology courses combine existing courses, Knapp said.

The program changes will help to maintain choices for students as the district cuts staff, she said.

For example, Accounting is now a yearlong course. Next year, Accounting I will provide basic principles, while Accounting II will provide advanced principles, Knapp said. Students will be able to opt to take one or both of the courses.

The revised courses will continue to use the same textbooks and materials, so they will not come with an added investment, board member Kristi Robbins said.

Combining multiple courses into one is one way the district is doing more with less, Robbins said.

“It’s another way of building efficiency into the system,” she said.

With the AP science courses, teachers will have to undertake some professional development to learn how to cover the rigorous material in less time, Knapp said.

Currently, AP science students have instruction three days per week and lab twice per week. The changes will cut out the additional lab time, Knapp said.

It is possible to work in more with a smaller time frame, she said, as some central Ohio districts follow Westerville’s existing five-day model for AP science courses and others use the three-day model the district is moving to.