Evanston Township High School will not sponsor any trips abroad this year because of safety concerns, Superintendent Allan Alson announced at the ETHS board meeting Monday.

Speaking after the meeting, District 202 School Board President Willie Miller and several other board members said they supported the superintendent’s decision.

“It’s unfortunate that we have to face these kinds of situations in our lives, but they do exist,” Miller said.

Alson made the decision after speaking with the teachers who usually chaperone the events, Miller said.

“We certainly don’t mean to make it a precedent, but in light of the events of September 11 it seemed like the right thing to do,” board member Steven Gilford said.

Also at the meeting, a proposal was made to introduce five classes next year. There is a growing focus on building sequences of courses that allow students to develop particular areas of expertise, said Laura Cooper, the assistant superintendent for curriculum.

One new class on animation fits into a series of courses on two-dimensional art that might lead students to a “capstone” course, a term the Curriculum Council uses to refer to a yearlong advanced course at the end of a sequence. In the animation sequence, the “capstone” is a graphic communication class. Students could further pursue their interest with an internship in applied sciences and technology.

One class that Cooper proposed and would like to see developed into a sequence is a class for sophomores called Humanities Enriched. It is designed to take a “holistic approach” to improve students’ reading comprehension by teaching literacy skills within the context of English and history classes, said Jennifer Fisher-Isquierdo, the ETHS history department chairman.

It will be team-taught by three teachers: one for English, one for history and one for reading. The course is still being developed to counter the “band-aid” approach of having separate, remedial reading classes, Fisher-Isquierdo said.

The humanities program would replace low-level English and history classes in some students’ schedules.

Another proposed class is Advanced Placement Chemistry, a second year of chemistry for interested students. Science department chairman John Buchanan said he believes there are enough students to fill at least one class.

Also proposed is Theater 4, which would be the “capstone course” for students with a strong interest in theater. The final course proposed is a second “Adventure Education” class to build on the climbing and rappelling skills students developed in the popular first semester of the class.

The board also recognized 19 seniors for high achievement on the PSATs. The students were semi-finalists in the National Merit Scholars, National Achievement Scholars and National Hispanic Scholars programs.

“I think it makes the parents feel really good to see their sons and daughters recognized,” Alson said. “And the students feel really good about it. They’re highly successful — and that’s what we’re all about.”