This year has been quite different from most and with that comes changes in academic classes. Teachers at the high school, that are qualified with a masters degree, now teach more DMACC classes so students can take them in the comfort of their own school. 

Jory Houser, one of the counselors here at North Polk, helps to coordinate some of the logistics of the classes. 

“Starting next semester we will have DMACC Personal Finance and then we are going to be doing a work based learning program where students will also get DMACC credit, both of these new classes will be taught by Mrs. Krantmon, who is a new teacher this year,” said Houser.

Oftentimes there are many challenges in offering these classes at the high school because of the limited number of teachers, resources and students that want to take the class.

“There are a lot of behind the scenes, first you have to have a staff member who has a masters in that area, second DMACC has to “ok it” and sometimes they have special requirements and finally there has to be enough students that want to take the class,” said Houser. 

Criminal Justice from DMACC has been unfortunately hard to teach at the high school even though many students are interested in it. 

“Criminal Justice is one that we keep trying to get, we had enough students interested, over 50 kids, but because we needed Mrs. Olsen to teach Spanish we just couldn’t have it. This year we had so many students trying to take Spanish that we had to make an extra section,” Houser stated. 

As the school grows, North Polk will continue to increase the number of DMACC classes available for students to take in the comfort of their own high school and will continue to support students’ academic careers the best they can.