By Charles Pan ’18, Staff Writer

Newark Academy is famous for its various committees’ attempts at involving both the students and the faculty in decisions that will affect the entire school community. There are many groups and events that have been created to positively impact the Newark Academy community, such as the Rise and Flourish campaign, the Student Council, Voice Proposals, and even the Dress Code Committee. However, there is one, not well-known group that creates significant changes to Newark Academy’s environment: the Curriculum Committee.

The committee is co-chaired by middle school principal, Mr. Ashburn, and upper school principal, Dr. DiBianca. It consists of a teacher from each department, a few administrators, and four Newark Academy students, two juniors and two seniors. This year, the juniors are Elina Hoffmann and Dalton DeStefano, and the seniors are Mollie Wohlforth and Halle Abraham.

Dr. DiBianca defined the Curriculum Committee as “a group of administrators, teachers, and students who consider proposals for new Newark Academy courses and changes in our academic program.” However, as important of a job as the committee has, it didn’t meet this year in November because there were no changes to discuss.

Dalton DeStefano ’16 was only able to state that he was “excited” for the upcoming changes that would be discussed, as there has been no indication of what the future will bring for the committee. Halle Abraham ’15, already having one year of experience on the committee, is uncertain regarding the future: “While last year was focused much more on changes to the science curriculum, every year brings a different agenda and new teachers.”

While the lack of proposals for curriculum changes may at first appear to be alarming, it is clear that there will be a meeting in January to discuss important issues. In the past, the committee has considered changes such as adding the STEMinar courses, replacing IB Physics HL with Advanced Physics with Calculus, and changing the name of Math ¾ to a more exact one. While the first and third proposals were promptly passed last year, the second was postponed for this year in the hopes of a more clear description of what Advanced Physics would look like.

Although it is impossible to deny that the Curriculum Committee holds an important role in the future of all Newark Academy students, it remains to be seen what sort of role it will play this year.