The USD 475 Board of Education has authorized staff to submit an application for the Kansans Can School Redesign program.

The application would be for Junction City High School and Westwood Elementary School.

Dr. Ferrell Miller, Board President, said that they are taking the recommendations from the two schools to get involved in the program that comes from the State Board of Education.

“Teachers had to meet, get the explanation, ask questions and then vote on whether or not they were interested in getting involved with this; the percentages at Westwood was 100 percent of their staff were in agreement that it was something that they wanted to be involved in, and it was a high 90 percent of the high school faculty to voted to go ahead and be a part of this program.”

Miller said that the program is an opportunity for the schools to plug into five focus areas that the State Department of Education designed for all schools. The focus areas are social and emotional growth, kindergarten readiness, individual plans of study for each student, high school graduation rates and post secondary completion of attendance.

“The design of this is to set up an individual plan of study for each and every student and to have an advisory staff to help them meet those goals and be prepared for their future.”

The application has to be submitted by August 1st – Tuesday.