The Economics and the Business and Entrepreneurship department will combine into a single department beginning this school year. As a result, classroom shifts will occur.

“When you think of business a lot of people think about the academic component of business as being [Economics], especially AP [Economics],” Upper School Division Head Butch Keller said. “If things progress, they’ll be posed to AP Econ classes, so its going to make the department more robust.”

Economics teacher Samuel Lepler is teaching classes in what was previously the Faculty Dining Room. Economics and History teacher Damon Halback moved to his old room on the lower floor of Shah Hall. Although students will attend most Economics and Business and Entrepreneurship classes in the innovation center and the adjacent classroom, Halback will still be teaching a few sections of AP Economics in Shah.

“I think that it’s a little bit more challenging being further from Mr. Halback working with AP, but it will be nice working with Mr. Glass and Mr. Thompson to work on the program,” Lepler said.

New Business and Economics teacher Chris Thompson will use the innovation center, which is also used by director of Business and Entrepreneurship, Juston Glass, to teach classes. A new class, Advanced Business is being taught by Thompson this year.

The name of the new department will remain as “Business and Economics.”

“There’s some thought behind perhaps creating a new name, but there’s been a lot of work put into branding business and entrepreneurship and it’s all positive; it’s been good and it’s growing,” Keller said.

Before it was the Faculty Dining Room, Lepler’s classroom served as a senior lounge during which a mural was painted on one of the walls. Unless it is a distraction, the mural will remain in the classroom.

“Our goal at this point is to keep it,” Glass said. “We also want the classroom experience to be as positive as possible, so we’re going to see how that goes, and then we’ll brainstorm from there to see what we can do with the wall if it is a distraction that’s detrimental to class experience.”

As Lepler’s classroom will be closer to Manzanita, Dobbins and Nichols, Alexis Gauba (11) finds that it will be more accessible for students.

“I think it’s very convenient because the track to Shah is rather long, so having the econ classroom in a more centrally located area would definitely be helpful in terms of having to walk less,” she said. “Furthermore, it’s right next to the business center, which is really cool because we’ll have access to whiteboard walls and all of the cool amenities that the innovation center provides.”

There are currently no plans to make similar changes to other departments in the future.