As BSM continually updates their programs to maintain rigorous standards as a college-preparatory school, the school’s program of studies adds new classes each year. For the school year of 2012-13, classes have been added to the language, arts, and religion departments in order to enhance these curricula.

The language department curriculum will add AP Spanish literature as well as Honors lower-level Spanish classes to give students more chances for advancement as they prepare for college-level courses. “We really want to create an umbrella of classes for the upper levels so that we can allow students to have more choices and continue in the language,” said Spanish teacher Mrs. Mary Murray.

At the same time, AP art classes give the same focus and depth to students looking to pursue a passion in the arts. “Our hope is to show kids that art isn’t doing a project once and then moving onto another project,” said art teacher Ms. Theresa Puffer. “We want to show the students how to focus on their projects and perfect each art.”

New religious classes for juniors, however, have been implemented in accordance with the Bishop’s new mandate for Catholic religion classes rather than as an addition to the current curriculum. “The Bishop mandated that we use the new Catholic religious curriculum by the start of 2012, but we had been working on the classes for 10 years,” said Mrs. Holly Hoey Germann, vice president of Faith Formation. “[The addition of the junior classes] is just the next phase in the process.”

In order to create a new class, department members work together to form the framework for the course before it can be implemented. “For us, the process of creating new classes was a little bit different because of the mandate by the Bishop,” said Ms. Hoey Germann. “But textbooks were altered to accommodate the new changes, and we picked one and created our own curriculum as a department, with different teachers specializing in aspects.”