During the Oak Harbor School District board meeting last week, the board adopted a new secondary social studies curriculum, which was in the works for months.

The biggest change in the curriculum is the replacement of “modern world problems” classes with “modern global economics.”

For some staff members, this change was initially a concern because they felt modern world problems subject matter would not be covered well enough in the new curriculum.

Brett McLeod, a teacher at Oak Harbor High School who has taught modern world problems for about eight years, was among those expressing concerns.

The curriculum committee asked McLeod and fellow modern world problems teacher Mike Fisher to go over the proposal to ensure that the subject is covered.

Before seeing the proposal, McLeod felt modern world problems was the priority, and Fisher felt modern global economics was more important.

“We looked at the curriculum, and what happened was … we saw that we could do both,” McLeod said.

The two worked together to ensure both subjects will be adequately covered.

“I think what this will allow us to do is kind of almost get the best of both worlds,” Fisher said.

Another change in this curriculum is that mandatory state history class will be taught in seventh grade rather than later.

For students who enter the school district in eighth through 10th grades, there will most likely be an online program to make up the credit, though it hasn’t been finalized. Students joining in 11th or 12th grade will get a waiver for the requirement.

The school board approved the adoption of the curriculum change, which will go into effect at the start of the next school year.