Trustees Approve New Unified Art Courses

Huntington School Board members have approved a new set of three art courses similar to the Unified Sports/Physical Education course that is already offered to students. The one semester, half-credit classes include Unified Studio in Art, Unified Media Arts and Unified Creative Crafts.

Annual enrollment in each of the courses is expected to run between 25-75 students. All three classes will be available to students in grades 9-12.

“Huntington’s Unified Sports and physical education offerings have been very successful and have served as a model for others to follow,” Assistant Superintendent Brenden Cusack told trustees. “Expansion of our Unified offerings will be of great interest to many of our students and will serve to foster our students’ academic and social growth in a nurturing, engaging and collaborative environment.”

Huntington High School offers a Unified Physical Education course and sponsors three varsity Unified Sports teams in bocce, bowling and basketball. It is also looking to start an intramural and extramural program that will expose students to even more sports.

“Unified Sports joins people with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team,” according to Special Olympics. “It was inspired by a simple principle: training together and playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding.”

The district’s Subject Matter Council approved the new courses on October 9 and the Educational Development Committee gave its consent on October 16. Trustees approved the classes during a public meeting on November 17 in the Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School auditorium.

“These half year courses will provide students with a variety of projects intended to build students’ skills and techniques as well as a thorough understand of the elements of art through creative hands on projects,” Mr. Cusack said. “The Unified setting fosters collaboration and team building between Huntington High School students who are in the Life Skills program and those who are in the general education setting.”