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Modified Graduation Requirements for the Rocky High Class of '22

Worried about the impact of COVID-19 on students, the Rock Island school board has modified the requirements for high school graduation.

Superintendent Reginald Lawrence says the current required number of credits to graduate is 24, but the board agreed to lower that to 18 for seniors hoping to graduate in the spring.

"We have a number of students over the last year and-a-half that have been impacted by, whether it's being able to complete courses, the social-emotional learning component of it, you know some students taking on additional jobs to help take care of home."

Doctor Lawrence says the Graduation Requirement Committee will soon start meeting again, and discuss possible changes for future classes.

"If you adjust the number of credits needed, what impact does that have in a number of other areas. Does that impact staffing, does it impact courses that are offered, or what do you do for elective courses that are currently offered and may not potentially be offered."

Other school districts in this area require fewer credits to graduate, and the state of Illinois only sets the minimum at 16 and three-quarters (16.75).

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois. While a graduate student in the Public Affairs Reporting Program at the University of Illinois at Springfield (then known as Sangamon State University), he got his first taste of public radio, covering Illinois state government for WUIS. Here in the Quad Cities, Herb worked for WHBF Radio before coming to WVIK in 1987. Herb also produces the weekly public affairs feature Midwest Week – covering the news behind the news by interviewing reporters about the stories they cover.