Joplin High School adds new courses for students

JOPLIN, Mo. — More than a dozen new classes are joining the list of options for Joplin High School students.

The board of education has approved adding nearly 20 new courses for the high school and Franklin Tech.

They include things like intro to teaching, macroeconomics, cybersecurity, and entrepreneurship.

The courses dovetail with the career academy choices for students and are designed to help them figure out their futures.

"Just because they're in a career academy and a pathway, doesn't mean they have to stay just inside of that. So it gives them an idea of what they want to do but also tell them what they don't want to do. And it's a lot cheaper to do that in high school, than it is switching a major in college," said Dr. Randy Oliver, JHS principal.

"So some of the classes we're adding are capstone courses, which really get our students out in business and industry for some of those real-world learning experiences that we really want them to capture before they leave us to either go on to college or go straight to work," said Kaci Dorton, Franklin Tech director.

The JHS career academies include art and communication, business and information technologies, health sciences, human services, and technical sciences.