COEUR d'ALENE — Students in the Coeur d'Alene School District have a number of options when designing their academic tracks.

They can pursue dual credits and graduate with an associate degree when they receive their high school diploma. They can enroll at the Kootenai Technical Education Campus and learn a trade. They can take advanced placement courses so they are ahead of the game when they head off to college.

All these options and more were discussed Wednesday night during the district's High School Academic Pathways Night, attended by more than 350 eighth, ninth and 10th grade students and their parents, who gathered at Lake City High School to learn more about what their educational journeys could look like and how to optimally tailor them to their ideal jobs and careers.

"The idea is to educate our parents and our students about the different academic pathways available to them come their junior year in high school," Lauryn Georgius, Lake City High college and career coordinator, said Thursday.

Ilexa Paszczynska, an eighth grader at Canfield Middle School, said she was interested in the welding and certified nursing assistant courses KTEC offers after attending the pathways event with her parents.

"It helped me learn about the different pathways that people don’t talk a lot about and people don't know too much about," she said. "It's really cool the school district is offering an opportunity to learn about all the things our district has to offer.”

During the event, students and parents discussed the different pathways and four-year plans in breakout sessions.

“A lot of it is driven by two worlds — the career and technical side of things and the students who maybe dont want to go to college, but they see the opportunities through KTEC and the NIC Workforce Training Center to be hireable right out of high school, and that's appealing to them," Georgius said. "The other side is the dual credit and AP classes ... getting an associate degree by the time they graduate, taking some college classes, it's appealing to them."