Hays CISD approves purchase of textbooks for Advanced Placement classes

HAYS COUNTY — In order to have up-to-date materials for students, Hays CISD is purchasing new textbooks for some Advanced Placement classes.

On July 24, the Hays CISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved the purchase of materials and support for Advanced Placement Biology 2 and Advanced Placement World History from Bedford Freeman and Worth Publishers in the amount of $95,090.63.

The purchase will provide an updated online student/teacher access and print textbooks in the classroom for the 2023-24 school year, as there was a major change to the curriculum and new materials are needed. This purchase provides six years of online access.

Curriculum for AP World History was updated in 2019 and the texts that are currently on-campus do not align with the new course configuration; AP Biology 2 has also seen significant updates in recent years and is in need of new resources. The current AP World History text has a 2016 copyright, while current AP Biology 2 has a 2012 copyright, according to agenda documents.

“This would be for six years [of online access]. We haven’t updated our AP in quite some time for these courses, so we are trying to address our AP [classes] in kind of chunks and this was one of them that was up,” said Derek McDaniel, executive officer for curriculum and instruction.

Trustee Vanessa Petrea mentioned some concerns from parents in the community about paying for textbooks out-of-pocket.

“What happens is the parents have to buy these textbooks or people offer them on Facebook and stuff,” she said. “So, I’ve been curious as to why our parents are having to buy these books? We get asked, ‘Why am I paying for my kids’ textbooks?’ I just want to know, are we going to be supplying these for kids for six years? Is that the plan?”

“Yes. It is my understanding that years ago, we updated all of our AP materials in one year and it’s now time to start refurbishing some of those that expired,” McDaniel responded.

Instructional Materials Coordinator Travis Smith said that the textbook materials for both AP World History and AP Biology 2 are going to be class sets of print books and the primary resource will be online.

“It’s not a large quantity of books. You are talking about class sets for just a few select, kind of specialized courses,” Smith said. “The turnaround on that is pretty quick.”

The district purchased extra print books in case some students may prefer or need to have a book at home, Smith explained.

“We always put a little buffer in there,” he said. “We will always have a handful of extras floating around for them.”