Dartmouth High School is repackaging some of its academic departments this year to group together some of its more modern classes.

The new department, called the “Business, Innovation and Technology Department,” includes subjects such as business, computer science, and media studies — courses that do not always fit neatly into traditional departments.

Computer science, for example, was included in the math department last year, as was business. But many of the classes in those study tracks, like marketing or game design, do not have much connection to mathematics.

“It’s pretty typical of schools to not know what to do with computer science classes,” said computer science teacher Eric Bosworth.

The teachers whose subjects make up the new department are still working out the details of the new arrangement, but department head Robert Perrotti, who also teaches media classes, said it will ultimately lead to more choices for students.

Perrotti explained that the plan is to eventually adjust the school’s graduation requirements to require students to take a certain number of classes in the new department rather than in the individual subjects. That way, a student who is not interested in computer coding could take a marketing or news production class instead to fulfill the same credit.

In addition to giving students more options, Perrotti said the reorganized department will help teachers ensure that they are not repeating lessons already taught in other classes.

It will also help the school align extracurricular activities, like DECA (entrepreneurship), media, esports, and robotics, with related classes.

Business teacher Mark Russell said the new department will almost be like “a mix of vocational and traditional education,” which will also include internship opportunities.

“Our students don’t lack for knowledge, they have all the knowledge in the world,” Russel said. “What they lack for is experience.”

Perrotti, whose media classes focus on covering community events and giving students professional-level experience, agreed.

“We’re trying to push for kids to get out there in the real world,” he said.