New opportunities and a new application process
Special Programs Night planned at Starr’s Mill
This year, Special Programs Night will take place on Jan. 11 with 27 courses being presented and discussed. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. in Willie Duke Auditorium.
December 12, 2017
As semester exams begin and Christmas break nears, so does the opportunity for students at Starr’s Mill to begin choosing their classes, and the best way to be informed on the classes offered here at the Mill is to attend the annual Special Programs Night.
Students this year will be given new opportunities as to which courses they are able to take. For the first time, incoming freshmen are being offered a second AP to take — AP Environmental Science. In addition, current AP Physics students will have the chance to take AP Physics 2, a new course taught by current AP Physics teacher Nicholas Gillies.
It’s important for our students to challenge themselves at the highest level they can handle.
— Principal Allen Leonard
“We’re trying to offer more STEM courses because that is the direction a lot of schools are heading,” assistant principal Krystin Glover said. In addition to the courses mentioned, 20 other AP courses will be represented at Special Programs Night and it is recommended that students who are interested in these courses attend.
Alongside AP courses, application courses are also represented at Special Programs Night. These courses include Advanced Art, Healthcare Science, Newspaper, Scientific Research, Work-Based Learning, and Yearbook. It is imperative students interested in these courses attend because each has their own unique application process and students would not want to miss a deadline they were uninformed of.
In addition to new opportunities for AP students, a new application process will be discussed this year at Special Programs Night.
“The application process this year is a little different than it has been in the past,” Glover said. One of the biggest changes is a new countywide policy that will change the way applicants auto-qualify for AP courses. “It’s actually probably a positive change, because I think a lot more students are going to automatically qualify than have [before],” Glover said.
Even if students don’t want to take AP courses or application-only classes, Principal Allen Leonard believes all students should attend to be informed about the opportunities they have at Starr’s Mill. “It’s important for our students to challenge themselves at the highest level they can handle,” said Leonard. “In order to give themselves a leg up when they enter the college of their choice.”
This year’s Special Programs Night will begin with a 30-minute overview of the programs at Starr’s Mill. Following the overview, students and parents will have the opportunity to hear from the teachers during four 15-minute sessions. Special Programs Night begins in Duke Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 11.
