Kansas officials have chosen seven school districts to participate in an effort to redesign public education.
The Olathe School District is one of those chosen for the Moonshot program in the state of Kansas. The program gives schools the opportunity to lead the charge on redesigning how students will learn in the future.
One elementary school and one middle school from each district will participate.
Andrea Bowne has been teaching at Santa Fe Middle School in Olathe for five years. This week she is preparing for the school year, and it may be the last time she sets up her classroom like this.
“The learning space is going to change and we’re going to kind of build as we go,” Bowne said.
Teachers, administration, students and parents will be giving input and deciding the best ways for kids to learn.
“If we could design our ideal school for students what would it look like?” JJ Libal, principal at Santa Fe Trail Middle School, said.
This year is about planning and collaborating ideas.
Bowne said she’s already been thinking about what can be changed.
“I personally want more freedom in scheduling,” she said.
She said some students need more or less of the allotted 50 minutes a day to understand her lessons.
“Maybe a kid is brilliant and may need 20 minutes of math to get through the day, but maybe they are really struggling in social studies or science,” Bowne said.
Sharing these kinds of ideas and making them happen is the intention of the Moonshot program.
“Right now, it’s just receiving a lot of input and getting some support from the state as well,” Libal said.
In the future, these programs will be implemented in schools across the state.
