School board member Greg Brown questions the proposal introduced by Assistant Superintendent Thomas Oestereich. Brown said offering slightly higher salaries than the surrounding school districts is not enough to fill the lack of substitute teachers.

The CCS school board met on Sept. 26 and Oct. 17 to discuss changes to the 2024-2025 Program of Studies. At the meetings, the board members introduced new classes such as Arabic I and AP Precalculus. They also eliminated others such as Debate II. The board additionally discussed a possible Principles of Literacy class for dyslexic students at this school.

According to Assistant Superintendent Amy Dudley, course changes are a reflection of the changes in student interest throughout the years.

“The way these courses come about is we look at students and their interests,” Dudley said. “And so we have certain courses like Arabic I as a new course, (since) we’ve had a lot of student interest over the last several years asking for us to add Arabic to our world language department. We’re always looking to add new opportunities for our students and making sure we are providing those opportunities and very rigorous coursework for them so that they are prepared for the future.”

Senior Sami Syed said Arabic I would not only be beneficial to fluency but also to student’s spirituality.

“If Arabic was offered as a class during my time here, I would 110% take it,” he said. “I can read Arabic, I can understand a little bit of it but I am not fluent because I can’t properly speak it. I feel like understanding the entirety of (Arabic) and learning to be fluent would have been so useful. Arabic has a heavy role in Islam and the entire Quran is written in Arabic. If I actually knew Arabic, it would boost my spirituality and I could get closer to my religion.”

Louise Jackson, Vice President of the school board, said Arabic would also be beneficial for students looking to join the military after high school.

“I’m excited about the Arabic (course) offering especially for students that end up going to the military and get stationed in countries where they speak Arabic,” she said. “I think that’s great, setting them up to be successful there.”

The meetings also covered strategies to improve the number of substitute teachers within Carmel Clay Schools. Assistant Superintendent Thomas Oestereich said this school district is very competitive in its payment of substitute teachers.

Oestereich said, “With the permanent substitute position, they can earn between $110 a day to $122 a day and if you look at our neighboring districts then that really puts us above all of the other districts in those positions.”

The school board will continue discussing strategies to increase the number of substitute teachers at the next meeting on Oct. 30.