by Mary Alys Cherry
Seems like only yesterday Clear Creek ISD officials were showing off the new Clear Falls High School, which was opening with only freshman and sophomore classes.
That was three years ago – the fall of 2010.
Today, Clear Falls is home to 2,366 students and just added its first Senior Class – a group of 498, who will graduate in June.
And, the Senior Class is not missing a beat. They were busy putting on their first Homecoming Parade and Rally, Carnival and Homecoming Dance after the Homecoming Game as we were going to press, and are already making plans for their first Senior Prom at 7 p.m. on April 6 at the San Luis Convention Center in Galveston.
Principal Karen Engle is understandably proud of the student body and all they have accomplished since that first bell rang on the school’s first day of operation.
Clear Falls also is the only CCISD high school to have biotech and information technology (IT) programs through Career and Technology Education. Both programs are open to all CCISD students but they must apply for admittance.
They definitely are not courses found in high schools until recently.
Information Technology
IT, one of the fastest growing career fields in the area, uses computers and software to manage information. Companies rely on their IT department to store information, protect information, process and transmit information and retrieve information as necessary.
Clear Falls students can start out on this career path in their sophomore year by taking:
• Computer Maintenance, which teaches them the basics of building maintaining, repairing and upgrading computers;
• Computer Technician, which teaches students how to install, configure and optimize personal computer hardware and operating systems;
• Telecommunications, which covers the basics of networking and how to manage and install basic network infrastructures;
• Research in IT Solutions, a course of independent self-study of topics such as Fiber Optic networking.
Biotechnology
The U.S. biotechnology – a rapidly growing industry that often demands more skilled workers than are available — has created more than 198,000 high-quality jobs at more than 1,400 pharmaceutical, agricultural, industrial and medical biotechnology companies, plus more at academic and government agencies.
Clear Falls courses offered:
• Biotechnology, which offers an overview and begins preparing students for work in medical, science and law enforcement forensic labs;
• Advanced Biotech, which satisfies science graduation requirements and focuses on the agricultural, environmental, economic and political roles of bioenergy and biological remediation;
• Biotech Engineering, where students learn to develop things like artificial lenses that restore sight to the blind or incubators that keep premature babies alive and how to contribute to the health of our planet.
• Practicum in Biotech, when students participate in a working internship or pursue an individual laboratory biotech project and gain real-world experience as they work alongside employees at the location to which they are assigned.
