As of next year, until a new curriculum is developed for the county, there will be no more honors classes offered at Bel Air High School for returning and incoming students.

After considering the current schedule, administration is figuring out what can be done in terms of offering other classes for students, to balance the weighted versus normal grades ratio with the absence of honors.

Why the change?

Due to the idea that an honors class may not have any real differences when compared to a regular class, besides the title of course, the board is looking at developing a new curriculum.

If they are successful in coming up with a true honors curriculum, BAHS will resume offering Honors classes. This way, honors classes will then truly challenge the students to follow a more mature and enriched path.

Is it fair and does it affect college admission?

In regards to the students who were not given the same opportunities as the underclassmen, there is no need to feel any sense of jealousy or anger towards your peers – it’s just a change of what’s happening in education.

Things are changing, but that’s alright. Students often tend to get so fixated on their GPA, which is important, but GPA is based on what each student is able to achieve during their high school education within their grade. Colleges take that into account. When they look at schools, they realize that, yes, some schools are weighted differently; this is what weighs on their individual decisions, not how one person in one grade compares to a different person in another grade.

How would this affect summer work?

Another issue administration has been discussing in regards to the adjustment is summer work for AP and weighted courses. If it’s assigned, when should it be turned in, and for how much can it be graded for? All of these questions and more are being asked and answered by Bel Air administration, however they have yet to decide on a set course of action for this topic.

What are the detriments of this transition?

Scheduling. With only a certain amount of staff, in terms of who teaches what classes, it’s impossible to say if whether or not there will be enough teachers to instruct any additional classes.

What’s the end goal?

Hoping to reinstate a true, weighted honors curriculum within the next one to two years, administration’s aim is to give the students absolute, legitimate classes that are what they are.

“I don’t want to say it’s an honors class and there not be a distinguishing curriculum or distinguishing assessments that actually make it an honors class.” Mr. Gregory Komondor, Principal at Bel Air High School states. “I want to prepare the kids – if they take honors courses, if they take an honors curriculum, it should be more challenging than a CP or regular course. It needs to be that way. Once we get that from the county, we’ll re-instate it and move forward.”

With so much change happening, it’s easy to find oneself lost in the confusion of transitioning from one way of doing something to another. But rest easy, Bobcats, with the knowledge that your teachers and school administrators are doing everything in their power to not only secure a more prosperous future for you, but for every student who will one day follow in your footsteps.