Charles Henderson High School is introducing a new block schedule this year, which opened the door for the school to start a new program that will give students the ability to learn work skills.

“Our ultimate goal is for students to be college and career ready,” said Assistant Principal Brock Kelley. “So we want to partner with manufacturing companies to offer the students a chance to learn about work ethic, professionalism and the soft job skills that companies are looking for. We even went to a local manufacturer to ask what they look for when hiring an employee so we could make sure that the curriculum gives the students the skills and credentials they need to be career-ready.”

The new program, Kelley said, will be a nine-week course that will give local companies an opportunity to come in and interact with students and explain what they are looking for in potential employees.

Dr. Lee Hicks, superintendent of Troy City Schools, said he was excited about the possibilities that the new changes could bring.

“This gives us the opportunity to provide many wonderful programs that will give students credentials for businesses,” Hicks said. “Whether a student wants to work at a restaurant or a bank or in the aircraft or automotive industry, we want to be able to provide programs that can help them get there.”

The school is also offering new Advanced Placement (AP) and Dual Enrollment courses. The new AP courses that will be offered are AP Language, AP Psychology and AP Art.  The Dual Enrollment program will be expanded to seven different classes next year in conjunction with Troy University’s ACCELERATE program.

The block schedule also allows for students to take a full 96-minute block of ACT Prep or other new courses that have been added such as choir and Microsoft Specialist.

“We transitioned to the block schedule because it frees up students’ schedules more than what a typical period system allows,” said Hicks. “We want a student to be able to go as fast as they want to go, but we know not all students can go at the same pace. A block schedule helps us to serve both.”

Hicks said that Troy City Schools would continue to look for ways to provide quality courses to its students.

“I don’t think you could ever really put a cap on it,” Hicks said. “We are constantly looking at how to grow our curriculum and offer quality productive programs.”

Charles Henderson will host a parent meeting at 6 p.m. on July 19 in the cafeteria to discuss new course being offered, the block schedule and new technology. The school plans to discuss the new schedule and new policies for its one-to-one initiative.