Lehighton Area School District will bring back industrial technology at the middle school and add five Advanced Placement courses at the high school for the 2026-27 school year, Superintendent Jason Moser said Monday night.

The middle school course will cover basic vocational skills, he added, possibly structured over two or three years.

“We want to make sure that what we’re doing is aligned with potential career and college readiness,” Moser said, noting the course will help students determine whether to pursue internships in high school or attend the Carbon Career and Technical Institute.

Moser said educators want to provide broad exposure while allowing students to focus on specific interests.

At the high school, new courses include architectural drawing, dimensional design and printing, AP Seminar, AP Pre-Calculus and AP Business with Personal Finance.

AP Seminar is a 10th-grade research and discourse class that launches the two-year AP Capstone program.

“AP Seminar is your first course. AP research is the second course,” Moser said. “These are highly rigorous courses.”

AP Business with Personal Finance will satisfy the state’s recent personal finance graduation requirements.

Classes growing

Moser presented enrollment data showing mixed trends in existing industrial technology courses in the district. Construction Technology I grew from 39 students in 2023-24 to 58 in 2025-26, matching its highest enrollment from 2022-23. Construction Technology II rebounded from 17 students to 24.

However, PLTW Civil Engineering and Architecture remained low with just five students in 2025-26, and Manufacturing Technology III and IV fell from 11 students to seven — the lowest in five years.

Manufacturing Technology I also declined from 36 students in 2024-25 to 27 in 2025-26.

Current AP course enrollment varies widely. AP Calculus had 5 students in 2025-26. AP Psychology grew from three students in 2022-23 to 22 in 2024-25. AP Statistics increased from three students in 2021-22 to 20 in 2025-26.

AP Biology runs intermittently with seven students in 2025-26, while AP Physics had seven students.

AP U.S. Government peaked at 61 students in 2023-24 but dropped to 44 in 2025-26.

Moser emphasized removing barriers to AP courses even if more students taking the exams means lower overall pass rates.

“I don’t want to see any artificial barriers that prevent kids from taking the swing, from challenging themselves,” he said. “Getting a two on an AP exam might not get you college credits, but it shows you truly what you know about that content area.”

Unlike locally developed honors courses, AP courses follow standardized curricula and testing.

Director Denise Hartley asked whether the cost of AP exams — just shy of $100 — prevents some students from enrolling.

“If I have two children or three children, and they come home and they want to participate in sports and they want to participate in extracurricular activities, the cost of an AP test may be something that has to be put on hold,” Hartley said.

Moser said many students qualify for fee waivers but the district needs to communicate that better.

“Maybe if we defer that cost for them, it would allow them to challenge themselves,” Hartley said.

Lehighton’s board previously discussed offsetting the cost and directors said Monday they would take another look at it.

Upcoming curricular needs will include a three-year renewal for iReady Math for kindergarten through sixth grade, updated books for AP Statistics, books for AP Pre-Calculus, AP Seminar and AP Business with Personal Finance, and resources for middle school industrial technology.

Before purchasing materials for the industrial technology course, Moser said, the district will seek donations from companies interested in developing skilled workers.

“We would seek private-public partnerships with companies who have a vested interest in having educated students coming out of high school in their vocational fields,” he said.

Companies might donate materials like drywall or PVC piping and provide curriculum guidance.

Board member Jeremy Glaush suggested acknowledging donors with plaques identifying which companies provided equipment or materials, though director David Bradley warned about school code restrictions on advertising to students.

Glaush said he was pleased to see progress on the middle school industrial technology program after discussions during a school tour two years ago.

“I think getting them into that very young actually may give them a passion for it later on,” Glaush said.

Moser said practical skills have value regardless of career plans.

“Knowing how to put a light switch in, drywall and plaster — it’s a skill that can definitely be used, regardless of whether they make it their career or not,” he said.