On Sept. 29, the State College Area School District (SCASD) Board of Directors held a meeting in which 10 new courses for State College Area High School were proposed for the 2026-2027 school year by Christine Merritt, the Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction K-12. The Board of Directors will either approve or deny these courses during the upcoming board meeting on Oct. 13.
The new courses proposed are Advanced Cinema Arts, Advanced English 11, AP Environmental Science, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, World Religions, Cooking For Life, AP Business Management, Engineering and Design Fabrication and AP Computer Networking and Cybersecurity.
“We really look at what will benefit our students and what are the things that will help them with their goals and their plans for the future,” Christine Merritt said.
Some of the courses, such as Advanced English 11, are to fill in the gaps created by the loss of the IB Programme, while others are to create more options to benefit the students of State High.
The International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) provides a challenging program for students ages 16-19 meant to help students learn more about the world, enhance their knowledge, and become lifelong learners. Its curriculum consists of six main subject groups and DP core (theory of knowledge, the extended essay, and creativity, activity, service).
One of the potential courses, Advanced Cinema Arts, is going to be offered in the place of IB Film, which is no longer going to be a course starting next year. Students will be able to take Advanced Cinema Arts more than once due to its advanced title, and the course may also have a weighted GPA. The prerequisite to the course will be having previously taken the Cinema Arts course.
“I think that there’s gonna be a lot of students who are going to be really excited to take that second full year course with developing their filmmaking abilities,” Cinema Arts and IB Film teacher Austin Van Allen said.
In Cinema Arts, students learn basic editing and filmmaking skills, make a small narrative/story film, as well as learn and perform other aspects of filmmaking. However, the students do not have the chance to really dive deep into those aspects, partly because Cinema Arts is a semester course, but Advanced Cinema Arts gives them that chance.
“When we have time to really delve into those topics more, I think students can get a much richer, fuller experience in film,” Van Allen said.
As well as Advanced Cinema Arts, there are three new business courses that were proposed, which were AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics and AP Business Management.
DECA treasurer, junior Luke Alexander, said, “I think that, personally, I’m gonna really like AP macro and microeconomics. I’ve been trying to take these courses. I was thinking about self-studying it and taking it at a different school since we didn’t offer it, but now that we are going to offer it, I’m definitely gonna take them next year.”
With the IB Programme, there was only one possible advanced course for economics, but if the board approves AP Macroeconomics and AP Microeconomics, students will have double the amount of advanced economics classes, with both being Advanced Placement (AP).
Additionally, another possible course for the upcoming school year is the brand-new AP Computer Networking and Cybersecurity course. It is a completely new course that AP is going to offer, with an AP test available in the 2026-2027 school year.
“We thought that might be an exciting opportunity for kids,” Merritt said.
While the courses will bring more opportunities to State High, Alexander said that he wished that students knew more about the potential courses.
“I’d say it’d be nice if the school kind of said more about adding this course…If they could kind of…advertise it beforehand or a couple years prior so we can prepare for it, that’d be nice,” Alexander said.
Some students may not have known about the new courses, conflicting with Merritt and her team trying to let the students have a say in the courses, and what courses they would like.
“I think that getting more student voice and more student input is always helpful. It’s just sometimes, we are challenged with how to do that,” Merritt said. “But we do listen to the students who come to board work sessions. We take notes, lots of notes. And that is a big factor in our decision making. So I want students to know that we care.”
Whether any or all of the 10 new courses will be approved and put in the State College Area High School course guide will be decided at the upcoming board meeting on Oct. 13.
