Jackson Heights board approves updated plan for graduation credits

Jackson Heights High School students who graduate in the spring of 2028 will be required to complete 24 hours of course credits, compared with this year’s Cobra graduates who have to complete 27 credit hours before collecting their diplomas.

At Monday’s Jackson Heights USD 335 Board of Education meeting, board members voted unanimously to confirm the former, then approved a “pro-rated” schedule of credit hour completion requirements for students who graduate in 2025, 2026 and 2027 to bring them into line with changes in graduation requirements mandated by the Kansas State Department of Education.

Jackson Heights Middle and High School Principal Derek Smith reminded board members that KSDE’s new graduation requirements, incorporating changes in the number of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), employability and life skills, communications and society and humanities courses would be taking effect with the graduating class of 2028, which will require 24 credit hours for graduation.

Those changes will see JHHS students transitioning from the current eight-period day to a seven-period day with slightly longer periods in the 2027-28 school year, a plan that Smith said didn’t raise “any major concerns” among district staff and parents.

“For the most part, I’ve heard positive comments,” Smith said. “You don’t realize how much adding those extra five minutes of class time is going to help.”

Current graduation requirements include 10 hours of course electives, but that will be reduced to three hours for the class of 2028, board members noted. That will involve the “pro-rated” schedule for the graduating classes of 2025, 2026 and 2027, which Smith said would mainly involve “shaving an elective hour off” each year during the transition.

Smith also told board members he would present a finalized version of the 2024-25 course catalog for JHHS students in March that incorporates the changes mandated by KSDE.

“We need to get the credts lined up,” he said. “We’re still working with the state on that.”

One of the changes mandated by KSDE for graduation requirements involve career and technical education (CTE) pathway courses that are not currently included in graduation requirements, while 2028 graduates will be required to have 4.5 credit hours of such courses under their belts.

Smith said JHHS students are making exceptional progress toward fulfilling that graduation requirement, noting that students are currently enrolled in a total of 270 hours of CTE classes, with many students taking multiple CTE credit hours this year. He also noted that the school is looking at adding additional CTE pathway courses, including digital marketing, natural resource management and construction design.

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