After nearly a decade of tradition, a bill signed in March no longer requiring high schools to complete a culminating project (CP) by the state liberated Wenatchee High School students, starting with the class of 2015, from meetings during break and presentation nights — almost.

According to Principal Bob Celebrezze, while the state no longer mandates CP in schools, the school board still requires a High School and Beyond Plan, also known as a Fifth Year Plan.

“It was unanimously supported by each department to not do a culminating project, it was also supported by the LIT (Learning Improvement Team) team to not do a culminating project… it has been supported by the superintendent to not do a culminating project, if and only if, we are actively doing a Fifth Year Plan, which in many ways is similar [to CP],” Celebrezze said.

“So what we as a school district have now bought into is a program called Career Cruising… and the idea is now that we will move to a Fifth Year Plan utilizing Career Cruising as the key tool.”

Wenatchee Learns Coordinator Diana Haglund said Career Cruising achieves career awareness by providing students with matches to diverse careers, a college application tracker, and information about specific colleges, financial aid, Common Core, professional conduct on social media, and more.

“It is giving students the keys to explore careers instead of lectures,” Haglund said. “Have control of your finances, know where you are going so you can do all you want to do.”

Up to the class of 2014, a Fifth Year Plan was one of the components in CP, yet starting with the class of 2015, it will be the only piece required to graduate. Like the name suggests, the plan focuses on students’ steps after graduation and requires career researching, financial education, visiting post-secondary education sites, a resume, etc.

“The idea of the Fifth Year Plan is to start in the ninth grade level and build up to find out what their aptitudes are, to find out what their strengths are, to find out what they could very well be good at, so that after high school not everybody needs to go to a four year university and major in law,” Celebrezze said. “There are all types of careers out there that don’t necessarily fit in the traditional university mold, and they are high-paying, quality jobs.”

Though Celebrezze said it is still up in the air as to what the class of 2015, who have done CP for all three years, will be required of, Haglund believes since Career Cruising is a completely web-based program that can be accessed any time, it is nothing those seniors can’t complete in a year.

“[We should] finish it [CP] out,” junior Claire Devereaux said. “There is already is going to be enough changing on [next year].”

For the following graduating classes, Haglund estimates they will be required to complete four lessons in Career Cruising per year as part of the Fifth Year Plan; however, it’s still up to the school board. This past month, all students were scheduled to log on to Career Cruising to become acquainted with the program, so that it can fully kick off next year when students will complete it on their own time with an occasional assembly and support from counselors.

Though no more meetings during break and possibly no presentation nights sounds good to some, others will miss the interaction and watching the presentations.

“I’m personally going to miss seeing the kids in my [CP] group,” science teacher Todd Busse said.

The implementation of Career Cruising at the same time of lifting the state requirement of CP was coincidental, according to Haglund, though she recognizes it was time for a change.

“[CP] was a great plan, but over the years, it lost speed,” Haglund said. “Students could complete it in one night; it wasn’t valuable.”

Career Cruising, on the other hand, is hoped to embody the districts shift from “industrial” style of learning to a personal approach.

“[The focus is on] career based, personalized learning at a quicker pace with real world connection,” Wenatchee School District Superintendent Brian Flones said. “I think [Career Cruising] will be very beneficial to students … it will guide and direct their educational path and lead to opportunities in the workforce.”