Youth Options is a hit with local students
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
If anyone needed any further proof that students at Burlington High School are smart, all they needed to do was look at the fall grades for students enrolled in Youth Options.
The Youth Options programs – which allows students to pursue college credits of their choice provided the classes aren’t already offered at BHS – saw 15 students in 19 classes earn no grade lower than a C.
Of those classes, 14 were at Gateway Technical College, where students earned six A’s, four B’s and four C’s, while three classes at the University of Wisconsin–Parkside yielded an A, B and a C.
Two classes taken at UW–Whitewater both yielded A’s.
Currently, there are 32 students enrolled in 37 classes at three different colleges for the spring semester, and 53 students have requested courses at six different colleges for the coming fall.
BHS Assistant Principal Mike Raether made a presentation to the Burlington Area School District Curriculum Committee Monday night, saying students show enthusiasm for the program.
“It’s a great thing for kids to get in there and start building their (college) transcripts,” he said.
The state mandates that the classes be offered and paid for within the district, and credit costs for the students requesting classes for the upcoming fall semester is estimated at more than $50,000. The district covers all tuition and books, as required by state law.
Raether did caution that the number of classes and students for the fall was an estimate – and likely would be lower than what had been requested, due to students finding the requested course would not fit his or her schedule.
“We always fall much lower than this, because students don’t always go with this,” he said.
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