GRAND ISLAND – Grand Island Senior High School’s Academies programs are concluding their fifth year in full operation.
District officials are still fine-tuning Academies, with one Academy and several pathways being eliminated heading into the 2024-2025 school year.
“Our graduates have a plan for their future,” Executive Principal Jeff Gilbertson said.
Jeff Gilbertson, (GISH, Courtesy)
A graduate from a traditional high school may say at the time of graduation, “I don’t have a plan for my future.”
“Today, our graduates are confident. They have a plan for their future,” Gilbertson said. He gave an example of a student who has just completed his junior year. The student plans to do an internship at a local financial services business this summer.
All of Grand Island Senior High School’s ninth-graders go to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for a one-day visit. Although not all graduates are bound for four-year colleges, the college visit gets students thinking about their futures.
For the 2024-2025 school year, Grand Island Senior High School will offer five Academies and 11 pathways. The Education, Law, and Public Safety Academy was eliminated at the conclusion of this school year. That happened during a year when the school district cut nearly $5 million from its budget, as announced this spring.
The five Academies and 11 pathways (in parentheses) are:
*Academy of Freshman Exploration.
*Academy of Engineering (Engineering, Architecture).
*Academy of Business and Communication (Finance, Entrepreneurship).
*Academy of Technical Sciences (Automotive and Diesel, Construction, Manufacturing).
*Academy of Medical Sciences and Education (Healthcare, Sports Medicine and Therapy, Emergency Services, and Education).
Of the Academies, the Academy of Medical Sciences and Education is the most popular. The next most popular Academy is the Academy of Technical Sciences, and the next-ranking Academy is the Academy of Business and Communication.
If a career in which a student is interested is not listed in a specific Academy, several options occur, according to the district’s website.
The school will work with the student “to personalize a related pathway to meet that student’s needs, through electives, distance learning, or work-based learning opportunities.”
The only off-campus location for the next school year is at the Career Pathways Institute at 1215 S. Adams St. The English Language Newcomers had been attending classes at the district’s Wyandotte St. building (former Starr Elementary school location). But because that building is being sold, the Newcomers will attend classes in the mornings at the Career Pathways Institute building, Gilbertson said.
The school district will continue to offer bus services to and from the Career Pathways Institute to the high school, he noted.
According to a Frequently Asked Questions section on the school’s website, the academies and pathways were chosen based on whether they are High Skill, High Wage, and High Demand.
Two commonly asked questions are “Why doesn’t the high school offer a culinary pathway?” and “Why doesn’t the high school offer a cosmetology pathway?” Gilbertson said. The reason why those areas aren’t offered as pathways is they are not considered High Skill, High Wage, and High Demand jobs, Gilbertson said.
For the upcoming school year, students will take their core classes at Grand Island Senior High School. In the past, core classes were offered at the off-campus locations.
High school students still have the opportunity to take dual-credit courses, with a student completing a maximum just shy of 30 credits, Gilbertson said. That student will start college at the sophomore level.
“It’s a cost savings. It really opens the door for our students. It continues to benefit many graduates,” Gilbertson said.
Grand Island Senior High School continues to collaborate with Central Community College (CCC). Although the law pathway was eliminated,
a student can pursue that area with classes available at CCC. Students also take welding classes through CCC.
“We have a solid relationship with CCC,” Gilbertson said.
A student chooses a pathway in December of the freshman year, he said. The student may change a pathway one time at the end of their sophomore year. If a student does not get the first pathway choice, the student gets another pathway that was selected. Students will have the opportunity to take courses from separate academies, according to the Academies website.
In the freshman year, students take core content and a seminar course that is an overview of the Academies. All freshmen also attend a career fair, according to the district’s website.
“We are not asking our students to choose a career for life,” Gilbertson said.
Instead, the Academy program can lead the student to understanding what the student wants to pursue.
In the pathways, students take a three-course sequence during their sophomore, junior, and senior years. A student is considered a “pathway completer” when the student has completed the three-course sequence.
“The majority of students complete the pathway (sequence),” Gilbertson said.
The high school has a timeline about the Academies program within that section of the district’s website, as well as a “Frequently Asked Questions” section.
According to the website, building a second high school was removed from the plan for a Fall 2014 bond use “due to cost and the lack of understanding of the need.” Grand Island Senior High School continues to increase in enrollment. Currently the high school has approximately 2,700 students, and it has grown by approximately 100 students per year, Gilbertson said.
In the fall of 2017, a group of high school students, staff, counselors, principals, administrators, Board of Education members, and community partners attended the National Carer Academy Coalition Conference in Nashville, Tenn., and toured the Academies of Nashville.
“With the help of a national school consulting group, the visioning team reviewed the benefits of at least six different high school models,” the website said. The visioning team included Board of Education members, teachers, parents, community and business leaders, higher education representatives, and students.
In August 2018, ninth-grade students began the school year in the Academy of Freshman Exploration. All of Grand Island Senior High School students and Career Pathways Institute students are on a block schedule. That fall, work continued on a program of study for all academies. In November 2018, students learned of the pathways where they have been placed. Finally, all Academies were in operation starting in the fall of 2019.
Students in the robotics lab engineering their bots, (GISH, Courtesy)
