Students interested in journalism and theatre will be able to delve further into those subjects at Powell High School.

The Park County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees approved three new classes that will be available to PHS students this school year, which started Aug. 26.

Two new concurrent enrollment theatre classes — Beginning Acting and Acting II — will be taught by Bob Hunt at PHS, and students will be able to receive credit through Northwest College.

“We have only previously been able to offer … Intro to Theatre and students had been able to repeat it for high school credit, but only receive NWC credit once,” said Kara Miller, school counselor at PHS.

Juniors and seniors will now be able to take all three classes, each worth three college credits; a fourth class — Stagecraft — hopefully will be offered next year, Miller said.

“Going forward we are looking at a two-year rotation with our four concurrent classes,” she said, adding that, “if a student maximizes their junior and senior years with all four courses, they could walk away with 12 theatre credits — in addition to many other concurrent and dual classes available to them as PHS students.”

Students who take the theatre classes are involved with various productions at PHS. In recent years, students have presented “Rock of Ages,” “Clue,” “The Addams Family” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

The school board also approved a new journalism class called Advanced Composition for the Media, taught by Vin Cappiello.

Students in the advanced class will be involved with the online student newspaper The Prowl, which launched in 2017-18.

PHS Principal Tim Wormald said The Prowl has been a positive addition to the school.

“I think it just brings a different perspective on what happens day in and day out,” Wormald said. “The kids have done a really nice job of ... investigating some different situations and keeping up on all of the events. They’re really producing quality writing — they’re doing a good job.”

He said students have to be responsible with their time, as it’s one of seven classes they’re taking.

“It’s not one where you can sit through it and earn the credit,” Wormald said. “You have to be active, pursue information, and it’s a lot of writing.”

The journalism classes are considered electives, but Wormald said the hope is to have the advanced class approved as an English credit, since students will be doing more writing.

The Prowl is online at www.phsprowl.com.