Gibraltar High School Looks for More AP Classes

An aerial photo of the Gibraltar School District campus by Brett Kosmider.

Gibraltar High School Principal Jim DeBroux is intensively reworking the school’s secondary course guide, completing updates such as removing a virtual-learning requirement and pinpointing a timetable when withdrawal from a class would result in a failure on a student’s report card.

Primarily, DeBroux is looking for ways to add more opportunities for growth and learning for students, as he reported to the school board this month. He proposes to add five more Advanced Placement (AP) classes to increase the AP offerings to 19. Some of those classes include art history, two computer-science courses and AP pre-calculus. In addition, he is exploring more avenues for advanced credit for college.

Meanwhile, school leaders have been working on a new mission and vision statement, and Superintendent Brett Stousland said district administrators are using the book Five Levers to Improve Learning as a guide. Stousland said he has a goal of propelling Gibraltar from its already high-performing status to one of the top five districts in the state in terms of everything from student achievement to improving average ACT scores.

Stousland and board member Don Helm said school leaders are not looking for a transitional change, but rather, a transformational change: a thorough, tactical plan for best practices in instruction.