Choices expanding for students returning to Mahoning Valley schools this year

YOUNGSTOWN

Another city school year begins with new programs as the district continues its plan to offer more choices for students, while other Mahoning Valley districts implement a science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum.

This school year, the former Volney Rogers Middle School on South Schenley Avenue will reopen as Discovery 2 at Volney, similar to Discovery at Kirkmere, which opened last school year. Volney was shuttered for the 2013-14 school year.

The Discovery program, for third- through eighth-graders, offers courses in engineering, dance, music, art, communication and Spanish as well as core classes. Discovery 3 at East, also new this year, will be housed at East High School, and offered to seventh- and eighth-graders.

“It follows a career path tied to Choffin Career and Technical Center,” said Superintendent Connie Hathorn.

This marks the first year school districts have been permitted to use Perkins grant money for seventh- and eighth-graders, he said.

“We’re going to have computer labs for students who don’t want to go into STEM” or visual and performing arts, Hathorn said. “We’re providing another path for them.”

Creation of the two new programs is part of the district’s ongoing effort to expand choice for students, he said.

Students returning to other Mahoning Valley school districts can expect to see changes, too.

Read more about what to expect in the classroom and costs families now must bear in Sunday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.