Riley Slattery

The counseling office provides support for students navigating scheduling for next school year.

As scheduling cards start to be sent out to students, there have been some noticeable changes including the introduction to pathway courses. Coach Tarrence gives insight to what pathway courses are and how they will work.

“Pathways are a group of courses students can take to become career ready when they leave Henry Clay,” said Tarrence. “It will allow them to get a certificate [and] if they pass the assessment they will be career ready. Starting next year there will be eight pathways offered to students.”

Current 10th and 11th graders will not have to take pathway courses, but current 8th and 9th graders who are not in the Liberal Arts Academy will.

“We are going to ask current 8^th and 9^th grade students to choose a pathway for next year,” said Tarrence. “As for Academy students, they have their own guidelines and requirements they have to fulfill in the Liberal Arts Academy, so they will not be required to take a pathway course, but will be encouraged to do so. If they choose not to take a pathway course, Mrs. Stephens will work with them to fulfill Post-Secondary Readiness through a CTE dual credit course.”

The reasoning behind pathway courses is to provide students with the opportunity to become career ready.

“[Pathway courses] will allow [students] to experience and learn about different types of careers and programs,” said Tarrence. “The certificate and [the experience] will help them as well.”

Pathway courses will also expose students to different types of careers they may or may not want to pursue.

“For some students, it’ll show them something that they’re interested in that they want to do,” said Tarrence. “For [other] students, it may show them [that they aren’t interested in that career] and this will help them decide to go a different route.”

The new additions to the scheduling card on top of block scheduling may be confusing for some students. But opportunities like pathway courses are created to help students develop into well educated adults and give students the ability to pursue the type of career they are interested in.