2024-2025 School Year Preview

The past few weeks we have started planning for the 2024-2025 school year. We have our Course Curriculum Guide approved and we are ready to start scheduling. The Career Center applications went out and have been turned in to our office. In addition, those students who showed interest in Early College have been handed out information.

Our next step is to start scheduling our students and courses here at Blue River Valley. A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to interview all of the sophomores and juniors to get feedback on classes offered here and get some valuable input. We have some exciting things happening and the goal of this newsletter is to try and explain the scheduling process and lay out the plan. Please know if you have any questions at anytime, please feel free to contact Mrs. Whaley (emily.whaley@brv.k12.in.us) or Mrs. Clone (lori.clone@brv.k12.in.us).

Mrs. Clone will start meeting with students today and parents can expect to see their scheduling sheets to sign in the next few weeks. Here is the approximate outline of when high school students can expect to meet with Mrs. Clone.

Class of 2025 - January 29th

Class of 2026 - February 5th

Class of 2027 - February 12th

Mrs. Clone will be in 8th grade (Class of 2028) classrooms beginning the week of February 12th to talk about scheduling for their freshmen year and we will have a parent/scheduling meeting on Thursday, March 7th at 6:00 pm in the high school cafeteria.

The Class of 2029 and Class of 2030 will be getting their information the week of March 4th and/or March 11th in their classrooms.

After listening to students and thinking ahead, here are some courses that are NEW to the Course Curriculum Guide for the 2024-2025 school year.

• Finite Math as a possibility for Juniors and Seniors
• Nutrition and Wellness (one class this year and look to add more in the following years)
• Exploring Education Professions for 8th graders who are interested in becoming teachers
• Principles of Teaching for any high schooler interested in becoming a teacher

The goal is that every student at Blue River Valley completes one of the following pathways upon graduating: Business Administration, Computer Science, Marketing, Biomedical, Ag Power, Precision Ag, and Animal Science.

As part of finishing a pathway they must complete a Capstone course. Starting in 2024-2025 we are adding our own Student Run Enterprise teaming up our Agriculture and Business department. Although we do not have all of the details finalized, we will continue to sell products from our Ag Barn. In addition, we will be adding a printing business as well as selling small products made by students. The students will completely run the business as their capstone course supervised by our teachers. This is an exciting time for our students, teacher, and our community! If you would like to help us get started or have any questions, please reach out to Mrs. Whaley (emily.whaley@brv.k12.in.us).

The Indiana College Core (ICC) is a block of 30 credit hours of college-level coursework that includes specific competencies and learning outcomes commonly found in general education programs. The ICC transfers between Indiana public colleges and universities. In January, we officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding with IU East. They will be our partner to help students who would like to earn the Indiana College Core Certificate get the courses and credits they need.

Fifteen (15) credits would come from IU or IU ACP classes. We offer many of the courses here on campus, but students can also take courses through Teacher Share and the WRAC program. Those are both asynchronous or synchronous online learning options through our local partnerships.

If you are interested in learning more or think this is something you would like to obtain while being a BRV student, please let Mrs. Clone (lori.clone@brv.k12.in.us) know when you are scheduling.

If you are a student who is interested in earning college credits while in high school, here are the options for next school year.

• IU ACP Pre-Calculus (3 credits)
• IU ACP Trigonometry (3 credits)
• IU ACP Calculus (5 credits)
• IU ACP Biology II (5 credits)

In addition, students can take Teacher Share courses, WRAC courses, or attend Early College at Ivy Tech in New Castle. The cost for college credit depends on the course and where it is taken. Currently, IU ACP courses are free and Ivy Tech courses are $95 per credit hour.

Teacher Share is a partnership with East Central Education Service Center in coordination with East Central Indiana School. East Central Schools offer a contracted teacher to teach any course in return the school then has 15 seats for students to take any of the Teacher Share courses. The courses BRV offers are Ivy Tech Dual Credit Music History & Appreciation and Digital Data Applications.

Although the courses are not set in stone, currently our students have the opportunity to sign up for ACP Speech, Finite Math, AP Physics, ACP Chemistry, and ASL I (American Sign Language) for the 2024-2025 school year. If interested in any of these courses, let Mrs. Clone know.

WRAC (Well-Rounded Course Access) is where the Indiana Department of Education in coordination with Indiana University created 90 virtually courses that are available to Indiana students and taught by Indiana educators. Some courses are dual credit while others are not. If there is a course that the student would like but is not offered at Blue River Valley, we can see if it is on this list as a possibility.

Early College is a partnership with the New Castle Career Center and Ivy Tech for college credit to students. The traditional courses taken are Psychology, Art History, Communication, and English Composition. The other two classes offered are Math 122 and Anatomy which are used for certifications for certain programs at the New Castle Career Center.