Incoming freshmen will have new graduation requirements and five options to chose from when selecting their education plan, beginning in August.

On Tuesday, Covington County School Board adopted those Alabama High School Graduation Requirements giving students six “endorsements” for a high school diploma – advanced academic, advanced career and technical, career and technical, credit based or a Covington County high school graduation honors endorsement. An Alabama Occupational Diploma is also available for students with some form of disability.

“This was done so that there is some form of consistency around the state,” said superintendent Sharon Dye. “What the state is calling an advanced academic endorsement is really our standard diploma. What was our advanced diploma will now be the honors endorsed diploma.”

Under the new requirements, students with the advanced academic endorsement will be required to pass all standard coursework including Algebra II with trigonometry, two foreign language classes and an online experience, and pass five of five sections of the state’s graduation exam. The advanced career and technical endorsement follows the same requirements with the exception of the foreign language and students must pass three career and technical courses. The credit-based endorsement requires the passing of all standard coursework as well as the passing of three of the five sections of the state’s graduation exam.

To graduate with the new honors endorsement, students must have four credits each of English/language arts, math, science and social studies as well as ½ credit of health, physical education and computer applications; one credit of physical education; two credits of foreign language and 3.5 credits of electives, as well as pass all five sections of the state’s graduation exam.

County school teachers are currently working on a syllabus for the new honors endorsement, Dye said.

“This new system will start with all ninth graders in the fall,” she said.

In other business, the board:

accepted the following resignations, effective at the end of the school year: Irma Nell Leach, Nollie Juanita Stewart, Barbara Chesser, Wanda Barnes and Towanda Stinson.