The new school year has brought the high school students many changes including renovated classrooms, new shared spaces with the middle school, and an updated curriculum. These changes aim to help bring the middle and high school programs into the same building while still still bringing high schoolers the best educational experience possible.
“A lot of people have benefited, not just the middle school, and I think that a growing program will benefit everybody,” Principal Kevin Poelker said. “So the emphasis is still on the high school, because the high school is the foundation.”
The renovations start on the first floor, which include brand-new middle and high school crossover spaces for robotics, music production, and vocal music, along with an upgraded high school learning center. Also receiving a major upgrade is the inclusion center which now houses many life skills appliances for our inclusion students.
A brand new locker room has been built for many teams throughout all of the sports seasons. The old locker room will now be the middle school locker room.
Moving to the second floor renovations, the new admissions center in Emerson lobby and the entrepreneurship center located next to the Innovation Center are both finished in time for the school year. On top of that, many high school classrooms have been upgraded with new technology and furniture.
Along with physical changes to the building also come a few important curriculum updates. Most notably, starting this year, the science class for freshmen will be physics.
“We wanted our freshmen to have more movement and hands-on learning in their day,” Poelker said. “Physics first also gives upperclassmen more flexibility to take advanced science courses later.”
Another curriculum change includes the use of the brand new entrepreneurship center for new entrepreneurship classes being offered this year.
Lastly, a necessary change has been made to the daily schedule. Activity period is now always strategically adjacent with lunches to allow for three lunch periods to fit in the day.
“I’m excited to see what ideas students will come up with based on having new facilities and new faculty and students in the building,” Poelker said. “I think we’re going to see things emerge that we don’t even picture yet.”
