Tori Wilson
Lantern Staff
Starting next school year, Butler students may begin to see more high school students in their classes. This is due to a partnership between Butler and Circle High School called the Thrive program. The program allows Circle High students, starting their sophomore year, to attend Butler from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. in order to start working towards an associate degree or certificate.
Many people from Butler and Circle were involved in making this a possibility for students. Two key players are Circle’s superintendent Don Potter and Butler’s Dean of Online, High School & Community Learning Heather Rinkenbaugh.
“Butler has a long-standing partnership with Circle and we have been engaged in conversation with Don since he started as the Superintendent,” Rinkenbaugh said. “We are always thrilled when a local high school wants to partner to create opportunities to make a difference in the lives of students,”
Butler currently offers some general education courses at Circle. Potter wanted students to be able to explore more in-depth career options from Butler than just general education courses.
“What we are looking for is to create pathways to match the interests of our kids, so then they can begin the journey towards their career in an exploratory fashion,” Potter said.
Butler redesigned their way of scheduling to allow this partnership to become a reality. Circle redesigned their schedule as well, that way the first half of the school day students can spend at Butler and then they can spend the second half at Circle without missing any part of their classes.
Although students are not required to enroll in the program, it is an option. Despite this, Circle has ambitious goals for Thrive.
“We would like to see 40% of this year’s freshmen obtain an associate degree or an industry recognized certificate by the time they graduate,” Potter said.
One challenging aspect of the program is transportation. In the past, any Butler classes Circle students took on campus, they would have to provide their own transportation. Potter and other Circle faculty members are working to develop a bussing schedule to bus students from Circle to Butler and back. Despite this, students that have their own transportation would be allowed to use it.
Currently, the Thrive program is strictly between Circle and Butler, although Butler is willing to work with other high schools in the surrounding area.
“While Thrive is a program with Circle, this same schedule is available to any student who wants to come to campus,” Rinkenbaugh said. “We would love to sit down with our other area high schools and talk about this opportunity and how it can help their students explore career options or get a jump start on college while they’re in high school.”
