This summer, District 205 administration conjoined the Business, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Industrial Tech departments to make the new Technology and Applied Arts Department. The combination of these three departments is very popular at most schools, due to the three departments having similar objectives.

“Now that we are joined together, we can collaborate together,” said Ms. Albert, the Division Chair for Technology and Applied Arts.
As well as collaboration becoming immensely easier, this transition allows for much more opportunities for Business, FCS, and Industrial Tech students to get real-world experience while enrolled at York.

“We can overlap for things such as career-based internships. Hopefully, a division-internship style course comes back for kids because it’s a great opportunity for students,” Albert said.

This potential internship-based class will allow students to receive career experience unprecedented to what almost all other public high schools currently offer.

Along with this internship in the works, the departments enjoy the collaboration that is now possible, because it creates new opportunities for lesson plans for all of the departments.

“I like the departments joining together,” said Mr. Sheridan, a business teacher at York. “We used to only have three teachers, but now we can collaborate with more teachers, thus creating much more ideas that are better for the kids’ engagement.”

Not only will there be more teachers increasing student participation, but there will also be collaboration between the three former departments for improved curriculum.

“Our minds will be open to new ideas for not only business, but how to apply technology in the curriculum, as well as ways to cross curricula to create fresh ideas,” Sheridan said.

Ultimately, this combination will promote extracurricular activities, provide better ideas for the teachers to apply in the classroom, and strategize for the future.