School year well underway at Hays High

Students at Hays High have hit the ground running for the academic year principal Shawn Henderson stops by to give us an update on this episode of the Post Podcast.

Transcript:

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James Bell 

Students at Hays High have hit the ground running for the academic year principal Shawn Henderson stops by to give us an update on this episode of the Post Podcast.

 

Shawn Henderson 

we have several new teachers that have joined us this year. And it's always exciting to see the energy that they bring in. Also to watch our people that are already part of our team, welcome them in and make them feel like they are part of this great thing that is Hayes Hi.

 

James Bell 

Love that, you know, it's it's gonna bring in a new energy and new kind of feeling when you have instructors in the beginning of the year and like new ideas and the collaboration and all that probably just to me seems like it would be I don't know, like a fun way to kind of kick off the year and move on into 2020 to 23. academic school year.

 

Shawn Henderson 

Absolutely. And here's the thing. I mean, as an educator, there's nothing more exciting than the beginning of the year, right? I mean, get your new backpack, pick out a first day outfit, and come in and all those connections that are made, you know, our theme this year was engaged. And it was fun to watch that happen to watch our people engage with the students. And vice versa. We even had Open House on Monday evening and to get to have all of our clubs and sponsors out and to have parents come in and see our school. It's It's really neat.

 

James Bell 

Yeah. And some exciting stuff going on in the district just in general. But we talked a little bit or we want to talk a little bit about this enrollment up as well. And you've got that new school coming here in the next few years is probably going to be like, Oh, my gosh, I want in there now. Right?

 

Shawn Henderson 

Yeah, I think patience is going to be is going to be a real thing. But I'll tell you what, we have a great design team construction team, the district we continue to meet and talk about what this vision for the future looks like. So it's kind of fun, because we already we have feet on both, you know, on both ground here we are in the current school with the current people and we are doing all that we can. But we're also getting to plan for this new exciting thing that is on the horizon. And just knowing what impact that will make on not only our school, but the whole community is is really exciting.

 

James Bell 

Yeah, with this increase in enrollment, is it? Are you guys like add capacity, or you still got a little room for them to get around? Okay,

 

Shawn Henderson 

we definitely can feel the students, the the the extra people that we had last year, you know, we're up over 950 now. And we ended the year at about 888 last year. So we definitely have more students. And we have some teachers sharing some spaces as well. And obviously, but at the same time, it creates some new collaboration. You mentioned it earlier, and some of our new people are in those collaborative spots. And so it's been, it's been fun watching that happen. And actually, as we plan for the new high school, that collaboration and teacher spaces and how people work together to impact student learning. That's really where we're headed. So we're just we're getting there already. So

 

James Bell 

love that. So what kind of stuff you guys you know, and I know, you gotta get into the academics of it all, but what kind of stuff goes on in the first part of the year to kind of ease into the rest of it.

 

Shawn Henderson 

There's not much easing at the high school. That's okay, though. That's the energy that we like. And you know, it's so fun to walk down the halls and see the students dressed up. You know, today we have, you know, soccer and we've got tennis that's in town, we have the volleyball team that's on the road, we have cross country that's on the road this morning. So we've already got hundreds of kids that are out, you know, doing their thing just today, and that's a random day in the fall. Doesn't feel like fall, by the way, one day, we might get some fall weather, right. Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, and then Friday Night Lights tomorrow, highlighting, you know, it's never just about football, it's all of the things, it's the community. It's the brand new band uniforms, which we debuted last week, which was really cool. And the cheerleaders and the dancers and I mean, it's, it's everyone, and there's just nothing like it. Actually, we love that Friday Night Lights. So yeah, we just have a lot of activities up and running. And we've had a lot of success with our groups. And it's, it's fun to watch them thrive. And so that's really exciting.

 

James Bell 

Very cool. Very cool. Anything on the academic side this year, that's kind of harder than usual, or is it just businesses? Businesses normal there?

 

Shawn Henderson 

Yeah, it's businesses is normal. But you know, one of the things that we're really proud of right now is our CTE and pathways. pathways in the state of Kansas is a conversation about how do you get students out and into internships and turning their, their, their academics from school into future opportunities are both at the post secondary and, you know, training level and, and so we have a lot of those partnerships and we're, you know, growing those partnerships all the time. But you know, like right now we have 97 students that that are leaving our building that are in an internship. So when you see someone walking, a high school student like this morning, said, Good morning to one that was wearing scrubs walking in, because there's going to come a point in the day to day that they're headed over to the hospital. That's really, really neat for our students, and it's something that we want to build upon all the time. I'm,

 

James Bell 

yeah, I like that, you know, and one of the things not not at all to get political here, but one of the things that came out of the student loan proposal out of President Biden's office is the well, how did we get in this mess, and we need to fix that. And you know, over the last few years, what I've seen, especially locally here is there has been an effort to not to dismiss or discount college education, but to right track those students and get them in the career fields that they want to be in and not necessarily skip college, if that's the way they want to go. But get them into a program or an internship or some sort of post secondary or post high school training that gets them where they need to be, without incurring a whole lot of debt and wasting a lot of time and things like that.

 

Shawn Henderson 

Right. And I think, but the impetus for that has to start with what's best for this kid, what's their story? Where are they headed? And how do we get them where we're going for some of those students, it's absolutely college. And they should do that. For some of our students, they have a lot of skills and a skill set that communities need. And it could be in all kinds of things. And that's why, you know, within CK tech and Fort Hays and our other other partners, we are looking at the student and their story, and how we can support them in that. And then, as the community realizes, you know, we have these partnerships, we hope to expand that so that our students have those opportunities to say, this is what I think I want to do. But when they go out and have those experiences, they're like, yes, it's really what I want, or no, it's not. And then they can be very intentional with their parents as to what training they need. And I feel like even in the new high school, and we're looking at the plans and talking, those CTE programs, those are those are going to be prevalent, they are going to be seen, and kids are going to watch what other students are doing. And CTE is for everyone. And that's really that's, that's something that that we're proud of, and that we just continue to bolster in our school.

 

James Bell 

Yeah, love that. And I would imagine, too, it probably helps in the effort to keep some of the students out here in western Kansas, whether it be haze or whatever, it down, you're listening to us. And there's that brain drain that we hear about all the time and those folks going elsewhere. And I think if we can train them to do the jobs that we need hear, we're more likely to retain them.

 

Shawn Henderson 

Yeah. And some of it is just letting them know what the jobs are. Now, we often hear well, we're training kids for jobs that are not that don't exist yet. That's 100% True. But I think some of that is being a responsive community to say, we do have young people that have all of these skills and this opportunity, how do we create it to where they feel welcome to insert themselves into what we have. And I think that's, again, a partnership between the school the community, the institutions that support us, and, and we're having those conversations, and it's fun. I mean, especially if you start to talk about it in terms of the scope of a new building, and how the new building can assist that. Then it's, you know, and I'm a creative person. So, to me, those are fun conversations.

 

James Bell 

Absolutely. Well, we've got just about a minute or so left, and we got to talk about this homecoming right around the corner, right?

 

Shawn Henderson 

Yep. It is coming up soon. It'll be October 3 through the seventh, you know, we have two new StuCo sponsors, Luke Lundmark. And Alan Neill. And they've just done a great job. I mean, I think we have literally I think we have 193 students on on the docket force StuCo. That's how many students are involved. And so I feel like that student engagement and that level of school pride is really up in the morale is up. And so I just imagined this homecoming to be really great.