Previously at South, all art classes were year-long but in the school year 2025-2026, they will become adapted to semester-length courses, allowing students to choose a range of art courses throughout the year. Faculty sought to complete this as part of the curriculum review process, which was implemented before the permanent scheduled review process.
Since full-year courses like drawing, painting, and photography were previously difficult to accommodate, the change aims to make it easier for students to fit art classes into their schedules. The precise impact on the schedule will be known once the master schedule is constructed, which is expected after the mid-winter break.
Nick Bernbeck, a school counselor at Grosse Pointe High School, explains that the decision to shift art classes to semester classes likely came from the Art Department to make the classes more accessible for students.
“It can be challenging to fit a full-year course within your schedule,“ Bernbeck said. “ That makes scheduling more challenging for students so the change would be positive and give more art opportunities to students.”
It was decided to give students additional art alternatives, enabling them to enroll in a range of art classes while attending Grosse Pointe South.
“This change allows students the opportunity to take art and to make sure that they leave with a fantastic understanding of technique, and to help them appreciate and love art while gaining different experiences,” Bernbeck said.
Thomas Szmrecsanyi, an art teacher in the Department Chair of Art at Grosse Pointe South elaborates on what prompted the decision to shift art classes to a semester class. Szmrecsanyi believes the master schedule is easier if courses are a semester in length rather than a year, as the change allows administration to arrange the schedule in a favorable way, to give students the courses they want.
“One of the bonuses is that some students will see that now that course is only a semester in length they’ll feel more inclined to try it out and consider art as an option,” Szmrecsanyi said. “When it comes to students in their decisions during course selection, we are more likely to have those students actually get the course that they wanted.”
Although the class structure will be affected by the length of the courses, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, and teachers won’t have any trouble modifying their project layout.
“It really doesn’t change the curriculum, you can just imagine taking what would’ve been a whole year course and dividing it into two separate levels so it’s sort of like the natural sequence of events is just divided across two different levels,” Szmrecsanyi said.
Students will benefit greatly from the schedule modification, which will provide them with greater potential to try new things and a wider choice of classes. Angela Allen ‘25, expresses how thrilled she is about the new opportunities.
“I would rather take a semester-long class than a year-long class because I want to see what I like and have more options while choosing classes.” Allen ‘25 said.
Students’ performance in their core classes may be impacted by the adjustment, which is likely to help with schedule management. Allen affirms she anticipates this adjustment could assist her in better balancing her academic studies.
“If it’s a year-long class, it feels like a commitment like math or science, but if it’s only a semester class, it feels more like an elective where I can just chill,” Allen said.
Overall, the choice was beneficial to the students and their possibilities. This modification is predicted to result in a significant improvement in South’s curriculum.
“We do what needs to be done to serve our students best, and this change was a step forward for our art curriculum,” Bernbeck said.
