Being in such close proximity to the school, the Columbia Area Career Center allows students to access an extended list of unique classes that offer real world experiences and degrees. Because of this speciality, Columbia Public School administrators are planning to fix this ease of access to all CPS high school students.
“Schedules are a serious issue,” CPS superintendent Peter Stiepleman said “Some classes start before students arrive from other high schools. Our goal is to create better alignment. A team of administrators and counselors met in June to explore ways to create schedules across CPS high schools.”
Because of  independent scheduling for each school, many classes are experiencing some trouble lining up class times due to either transportation or lunch/assembly schedules. By generally following Rock Bridge’s bell schedule, many Hickman and Battle students arrive late to classes as it takes a bit of time to make such a commute across town.
“Currently, in my first hour class, I have four Hickman/Battle students,” Digital media and career center teacher Patrick Sasser said. “Unfortunately, these students don’t get here until about 9:10, so that forces me to start class 10-15 minutes late every day, which makes me think it’d be very beneficial to have either a longer passing time, or something like that to alleviate that issue that most teachers probably deal with.”
A common misunderstanding among RBHS and perhaps Hickman or Battle students is that the CACC is exclusive to Rock Bridge students. All high schools have the options to take class from the career center and hourly busses leave from each school to arrive there.
“There’s already a misconception about the Hickman and Battle kids over here.” Sasser said. “Although most of the clientele I serve is Rock Bridge students, I personally have about around 10 percent is Hickman, Battle, Hallsville, Christian fellowship, or Family Worship Center, so around 10 percent are those students. Most of my students for me personally are RB students but there a lot of other school students here taking classes.”
With the potential increase in students at the CACC many students worry about an overflow in class. With only around 10% of students not from RBHS attending classes, an increase could potentially cause class to be full and have less one-on-one time with teachers or equipment. Sophomore and CACC class taker, Jacy Highbarger feels that this could be true.
“Having the career center so close to RBHS probably persuades many students to take the classes more so than perhaps Hickman, or Battle,” Highbarger said. “Making a change allowing other students from different school more access could make a huge difference in class sizes and students overall in the building.
Despite the discussions, Dr. Stiepleman predicts this won’t take place even by next year and expresses that the career center is open to all CPS high school students.
“Currently, all high school student have access to CACC class, and we continue to expand offerings at both BHS and HHS,” Stiepleman said.  “In some cases BHS and HHS student have to travel to the career center which CPS provides the transportation.  We are working very hard to provide as many courses at each student’s high school as we can.”