The Greene County School Board held a work session regarding high school credits.

Currently the high school offers a tiered diploma system. A basic diploma is 42 credits, the regular diploma is 58 and an honors diploma is 66. There are 30 credits that the Iowa Department of Education requires students to have, which includes areas of English/language arts, math, science, social studies, health, physical education, financial literacy and the School Board has required one credit of speech to graduate.

Students who are in the alternative school are there for a variety of reasons including failing required classes and work. It was mentioned that students stay in school because of the elective classes and how that gives them a desire to do something extra. A discussion then took place about offering incentives, especially to freshmen and sophomores, to get them interested in earning more credits. 

Superintendent Tim Christensen talks about the goal he wanted to achieve from the work session.

“It is more about what we want students to know and be able to do. We’ve talked about we want kids to be career ready. What does that look like? I think we know what that looks like, but can you connect that back to it takes three credits to get a student career ready. So it’s really exciting work and it’s going to be a great discussion.”

Following the work session, a committee will be formed involving, board members, teachers, parents and students to further look what can be done to get students better prepared for the future.