Geneva High School students will have access to five courses with dual credits at Waubonsee Community College

GENEVA – Geneva High School students will be able to take five courses with dual credits at Waubonsee Community College and the College of DuPage in the 2024-25 school year.

The Geneva District 304 School Board voted Oct. 23 to accept the proposed modifications for dual credit classes, modification to existing courses and new courses.

Associate Principal Doug Drexler presented the new course offerings to the board Oct. 23.

“We’re getting comfortable with the 2023-24 school year, but we start course selection with our students in January,” Drexler said. “We start getting the word out about courses and the options that are available to our students and families for next year.”

The courses with dual credit at the College of DuPage will be Advanced GTV Broadcasting, Horticulture and Modern Mass Media.

The courses with dual credit at Waubonsee will be Advanced Earth Science: Natural Disasters and Astronomy.

Dual credit courses will be offered for the current school year as well.

There will be two new courses and minor tweaks to existing courses, Drexler said.

Modifications to existing courses are mostly title changes, he said.

A business course called Changing Applied Technology will be renamed Computer Applications for the sake of clarity – and for those who don’t read the whole course description, he said.

A course called Discrete Math 2 will be renamed Quantitative Literacy and Statistics. The change is recommended because the prerequisite for Discrete Math 2 is not Discrete Math 1, which has caused confusion in the past when students are planning out their math course sequences, he said.

“This is the course that is aligned to Waubonsee Community College for college-ready math. The term they use for this course is Quantitative Literacy and Statistics,” Drexler said. “This is what community colleges are already calling this course. Why don’t we just call it the identical title.”

Other modifications:

• Rename Discrete Math 1 to just Discrete Math and drop the 1 from the title.

• Add a course prerequisite of either Algebra 2 or a standard economics course before taking Advanced Placement Macro-Economics. The course was offered for the first time this fall and students who had not yet completed Algebra 2 are struggling with some of the math in the course.

Three courses – Advanced Earth Science: Natural Disasters, Astronomy and Chemistry/Physics – that currently are open to juniors and seniors will be open to sophomores if they meet prerequisites and get permission from the chair of the Science Department.

Courses with changes:

• Advanced Placement Music Theory will combine semesterlong Music Theory 3 and Music Theory 4 courses into a full-year course. The curriculum in the courses already are closely aligned with the AP course, so only minor changes will be needed. The additional cost of materials and training will be $3,000.

• Walking for Wellness will be open to juniors and seniors, allowing students to use walking as a pathway to achieve their health and fitness goals. The class will take place primarily outside, depending on weather, and technology will be incorporated to set training goals, monitor heart rate and track progress. There will be no additional cost to Walking for Wellness.

The high school also will offer the option to take Driver Education during the Early Bird period from 6:30 to 7:35 a.m. beginning with the 2024-25 school year, officials said. This will help meet student demand and those who take Driver Education in the Early Bird period will be able to have seven classes during the regular school day.