As Jupiter High students fill out their course selection sheets, they may notice a variety of course selections they’ve never seen before. 

New courses come out every year to keep up with the student body’s interests.

“We ask [students at student forums] what kind of courses they would be interested in taking, [and] we bring that information back to the admin team to see what certifications we have,” Coral Daversa, assistant principal, said. “Some years the kids will petition for the particular class they are interested in.”

The new courses will only go through if enough people want to take them.

“Usually we’ll fill about 20 kids to run a class,” Daversa said.

Tammy DeLeonardo, choice and career academy IES coordinator, said that the court procedures class and international law class helped expand the Criminal Justice Academy.

“We felt like we were being a little too narrow minded in terms of the curriculums being offered now when students are coming in the Criminal Justice Academy not only are they getting the law enforcement side of things but they’re also are going to be taking an additional course which is the types of law,” DeLeonardo said.

Holly Decabia, guidance counselor, said she’s specifically excited about the new woman studies course, the returning Advanced Placement capstone seminar course and robotics systems.

“I think [these courses] are really some of the exciting ones for students to try to find their niche and enjoy coming to school,” Decabia said. 

These courses aren’t the only new addition to student’s schedules next year. Regular english classes will be limited to encourage students to take AICE and AP english classes.

“Our regular english will only be available to our freshmen, and then after that it’s determined that students should look at the AICE, pre-AICE or AP classes,” Decabia said. “If you’re an ESE student or an ELL student we’re still going to offer the regular english classes.”

Although regular classes aren’t on the sophomore, junior or senior schedule sheets, students can talk to their guidance counselor about switching into a regular english class.  

“I feel confident that students will be ready for the [AICE, pre-AICE and AP] classes by the time they’re in 10th, 11th and 12th grade to prepare them for their next steps after high school,” Decabia said.