At the last Plano ISD school board meeting of the year, board members unanimously approved 22 new courses for the 2017-18 school year. Approved courses include Personal Financial Literacy, newcomer English language-development courses, computer science courses, Principles of Biomedical Science, Social Media Marketing and Musical Theatre. A complete list of approved courses can be found here. A committee of 15 building-level and central office administrators reviewed the course submissions. Criteria used to select the new courses included student curricula, graduation requirements, campus-level course need, scheduling options, technology and facility requirements, student enrollment predictions, staffing and staff development, and budget requirements, according to the agenda item. Half of the 22 courses have no budget implications, but others required equipment, software, training, instructional resources, curriculum writing or the possibility of additional staff. These funds will come from operating funds, grant funds and the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Grant. The following items were also approved:

• The purchase of software from ClassLink for $131,180 annually. The intent of this software is to provide a one-click, single sign-on platform for students and staff. This new software will allow access to PISD web-based resources, Windows-based files and Google-powered applications from any device at any location with one password, QR code or face recognition. Previously, students and staff needed to have Windows programs saved on their given device to access the necessary documents. ClassLink also allows users to access server information from outside the school. This software is expected to be running by January 2017.
• The allocation of $250,000 for large kitchen equipment for all district locations. This equipment will be funded from the FANS operating budget.