Over the past year, there has been a statewide initiative to get students more ready for life after high school.

Called Future Ready Iowa, the program has a goal that 70% of seniors will be college or career-ready by the year 2025. The initiative has been championed by the Iowa Director of Education, and the state legislature has also given it their support. Perry Superintendent Clark Wicks explains, the program focuses on work-based learning and career-readiness. “So what we want to do with this is give kids an opportunity to see a number of different vocations, a number of different job possibilities, so that they realize you don’t have to go to a four-year school to make a great living and to have a great life.”

For their part, the Perry School District already has had a great deal of success in getting students ready for life after school. It was reported nearly half the high school attends classes at some point during the day at the DMACC center in Perry. Wicks says it’s great to see so many kids taking their education so seriously, and believes it helps illustrate the District’s commitment to the betterment of the students’ lives.