A round of applause erupted at last Tuesday’s board of education meeting after officials announced two of the CAD (Computer Aided Design) classes would be making a comeback for the 2006-07 school year.
The classes were temporarily suspended at Oxford High School for the 2005-06 school year due to declining enrollment, but the outlook for offering the architectural and mechanical CAD classes next year looks promising.
‘It looks like we will be offering some form of CAD class this year,? said OHS Assistant Principal Ken Weaver.
The tech-prep class, which is the highest level of CAD, will not be offered because there were no students in any CAD classes last year to advance to tech-prep.
The high school’s preliminary numbers received from recent schedule requests show about 27 students will be enrolling in a CAD class for the 2006-07 school year, though Weaver said it’s still not set in stone as to what the actual classes will entail.
‘We could run it with smaller numbers as a two-hour block class and have two separate classes or we could combine the architectural and mechanical,? he said. ‘There are a lot of different options.?
Weaver praised the efforts of CAD teachers David Okasinski and Gerry Wilson, both of whom actively and enthusiastically promoted engineering drawing, a prerequisite for CAD, to their middle school students.
Okasinski attended the middle school’s curriculum night, speaking with both parents and students about signing up for CAD.
As ‘part of the eighth grade orientation we brought the middle school eighth grade students over to the high school and gave them a tour of the CAD and engineering drawing rooms,? Weaver said.
Officials thought about offering CAD as a ‘zero hour? class, before school starts, but ‘only had one brave student select that option.?
The teachers will continue to push for students to enroll in the engineering drawing class to help boost the numbers even more.
‘Hopefully, through renewed student interest, we can keep the CAD program going because it is a great opportunity for kids,? Weaver said.