ADAMS TWP — Members of the Mars Area School Board approved several curriculum changes in advance of the 2025-26 school year during a meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 21.

One of the most notable changes that high school principal Lindsay Rosswog presented was a change in the business department due to a state graduation requirement.

“What we are proposing is taking our yearlong personal finance class that’s an elective currently and making that into a semester class, and making that a required course for all students sometime in their junior or senior year,” she said.

Since the state made personal finance a graduation requirement beginning with the class of 2027, the change most immediately impacts current sophomores and slightly alters the graduation requirements at Mars.

She also noted that while it will tighten the business department schedule for teachers, any student who has already taken the yearlong personal finance course would not be forced to take the new semester course.

There was also a prerequisite change for the advanced placement seminar course that was offered for the first time this school year. Students will now have to receive an 83% or above in an advanced English course or a 93% or above in a regular English course to take the class.

“Prerequisites are a guide for our students to kind of understand what they’re getting into and what types of courses they’re taking and what that requirement of work would be,” Rosswog said.

In other business, members also approved a resolution that limits the real estate tax increase for the 2025-26 school year to 5.3%, which remains in line with the Act 1 index, which is calculated by the state’s Department of Education.