Cedar Rapids schools working to address questions around new College & Career Pathways

CEDAR RAPIDS — Cedar Rapids schools officials met with families this week to share information about adjustments to the schedule for implementation of a new district program intended to prepare students for careers and education after high school.

The district hosted informational meetings Thursday at three high schools — Jefferson, Kennedy and Washington — to update parents and students about plans for Freshman Academies and College & Career Pathways.

The school district announced Jan. 20 that it would slow the launch of its academies and pathways program, responding to push back from parents who felt many of their questions about the initial plan weren’t being answered.

Originally, the district planned to launch mandatory Freshman Academies at the three high schools for the 2025-26 school year. They are designed to connect students to smaller learning environments where they can explore their career interests.

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Under the revised schedule, Freshman Academies will be an optional course students can take as freshmen during the 2025-26 school year, giving the district an opportunity to adjust the program based on feedback throughout the year.

The class will become mandatory for all high school freshmen in the 2026-27 school year.

The next year, 2027-28, the district will launch College & Career Pathways at the three high schools, plus Metro. Pathways require students to choose a career pathway and complete annual classes related to their path.

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Under the new timeline, students who are freshmen during the 2025-26 school year won’t enter a career pathway in their sophomore year, even if they opted to join the freshman academy. But they may be able to take some of the classes associated with the pathways when they are introduced.

The first class of students to have the full freshman academy and pathways experience will be the 2026 freshman — or the class of 2030.

Community push back prompts slowdown

When the plan was announced late last year, it was met with a petition from parents asking the school district to slow down and answer more questions. The petition didn’t have enough valid signatures to force the issue onto a school board agenda, but the district created a parent advisory group to work with the district on the new plan.

The parent advisory group and the staff members at the affected high schools were polled before this week’s community meetings. According to the district, 89.7 percent of high school staff and 95.5 percent of parents in the advisory group indicated they were in favor if the new plan.

The school district said this new schedule will give them time to address parents’ concerns as the program is implemented.

Parents say they’re concerned about next year’s freshmen

During the meeting Thursday at Jefferson High School, parents asked questions about what the delay will mean for current eighth graders, who will start high school when Freshman Academies are optional, and whether they’ll be able to take the pathway classes.

Jefferson administrators explained that those students will not be part of the College & Career Pathways program, but they will have access to elective classes that are part of the program if they want to take them.

Other questions that were raised could not be answered at the meeting, but administrators said the district would take them into account as more decisions are made. Some of those questions included: how priority for pathways classes will be decided if there aren’t enough seats for pathway students and older students; whether students still will be in study hall classes if the classes they want don’t fit in their schedule; and whether there will be an option to opt out of the pathways program.

The parent advisory council will continue to meet monthly with the district, and the next community information meetings will be held in June, as more details of the program are solidified, said Jefferson Principal Jessica Auliff.

“We are appreciative that we have that extra time to really flesh that out,” Auliff told parents at the meeting.

Shaun and Jes Swiser attended the Jefferson meeting Thursday. They said they attended the meetings late last year when the original plan was presented. Their two children — an eighth grader who will start at Kennedy High School in 2025, and a sixth grader who will start in 2027 — will be affected by the program.

Shaun said he signed a petition after the first information meetings asking the school board to slow down the process of implementing the new program in order to address parents’ concerns. He said the program seems like it will be beneficial to students, but he was glad to see the delay announced because there are still questions to work out.

“It sounds good, but I believe that they needed to take this step back,” he said.

Jes agreed, but said she’s worried about the incoming freshmen in 2025 who will choose not to take the optional academies course and may not be helped by the program.

“I think this program will be very good to increase engagement,” she said. “I worry about the kids that would not do this next year.”

Amy Hockett, another parent who attended the Jefferson meeting, expressed a similar concern. Hockett has an eighth grade student who will be starting at Jefferson in 2025, and a seventh grader who will start in 2026. She said she’s worried for the children in her older child’s grade level who may not participate in the program.

“The part that concerns me is that they won’t get the benefit until later,” Hockett said. “I’m excited for my kids, but it concerns me for kids that might be struggling.”

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