ST. LOUIS — MERS/Missouri Goodwill Industries will open two new adult high schools — called the Excel Centers of Missouri — in 2023.
The nonprofit already operates four Excel Centers in Missouri, with locations in St. Louis, Springfield, Poplar Bluff and Columbia. The two new centers, which it says are accredited, tuition-free public high schools giving adults an opportunity to earn high school diplomas, will open in Florissant and Cape Girardeau. Both are currently enrolling students for the new term beginning in January, officials said.
"The Excel Centers provide not only the opportunity for adults over age 21 to earn their high school diploma, but we offer life coaches to provide life skills which really helps these students see the program through," Mark Arens, president and CEO of MERS Goodwill, said in a statement. "We are also proud to offer opportunities for students to earn college credit or other industry certifications while they are getting their diploma, allowing for higher wages and increased career opportunities for future endeavors."
The Goodwill Excel Center of Florissant will be located at 3180 N. Highway 67, and the Cape Girardeau location will be at 2106 William St. Both are inside leased spaces and are satellites to the existing four schools, officials said.
Since their launch in 2018, the Excel Centers have graduated nearly 750 students through the four existing high schools, officials said. The centers offer small class sizes, flexible schedules and in some cases, daycare opportunities.
"One of the most important aspects of our Excel program, in almost every case, students may transfer the credits they earned in high school to our school, allowing them to pick up right where they left off," Eric Knost, superintendent of The Excel Centers in Missouri, said in a statement.
In 2018, when MERS Goodwill first announced the opening of its four high schools for adults, the nonprofit said it had won a state contract to do so. House Bill 93, signed into law in July 2017 by then-Gov. Eric Greitens, allowed the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to authorize a nonprofit to start the schools in St. Louis as well as in Boone, Butler and Greene counties. The two new centers are part of this legislation, officials said.
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