Kings High School students, teachers highlight athletics, personalized learning and career-focused projects

Kings High School students and staff used the monthly Kings Local School board meeting to showcase recent athletics, academic projects and schoolwide strategic initiatives, including expanded personalized-learning work and career-readiness opportunities.

At the meeting, student presenters Taylor and Gabby summarized winter athletics and extracurricular results and noted recent student achievements. “We’re super excited to be back this month,” one presenter said, then listed senior recognitions, district and state qualifiers in swimming, and national competitions for cheer and dance. The RAISE student presenters also named the school’s RAISE students of the month.

The presentation moved from extracurriculars to curricular and instructional innovations. Principal Doug Lyst introduced teachers and students who described the school’s culture blueprint, personalized-learning cohorts and the Power 5 future-skills framework the high school is using to tie instruction to career readiness. Teachers described classroom projects that emphasize student choice and real-world application: an English teacher redesigned a Shakespeare unit using student-created character profiles; a physical education teacher said his classes use a platform app to track performance and allow student choice in workouts; and engineering instructors showcased multi-year project-based learning culminating in independent capstone projects.

Jason Shields, engineering and computer science teacher, and students Gavin and Matthew demonstrated a student-designed project called “targeted tennis,” which uses sensors to register ball impacts and relay results to a phone for practice games. Shields described the class model as student-driven: students determine problems, set budgets and learn new tools — including accelerometers, Wi‑Fi messaging and 3-D printing — to build durable housings and systems.

Counselor Erica Volker described School Links, an online platform the counseling office has rolled out to help students with academic and career planning, resume building and internship and scholarship searches. An intervention specialist, Ryan Hayes, described a new transition‑to‑employment fifth‑bell class for students with IEPs that focuses on community connections, personal finance and workplace skills.

Teachers and administrators framed these examples as part of a districtwide effort to “name” the skills students need (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving and career readiness) and to give students authentic, applied experiences before graduation. Assistant Principal Jeff Miller said the projects and programs “hit pretty much every one of those” Power 5 skills and argued the work helps make students career ready.

Why it matters: the presentations illustrated how Kings High School is combining extracurricular success with curricular strategies meant to increase student agency and post‑secondary readiness. Several programs on display (certification in Solid Edge, engineering capstones, School Links and personalized‑learning cohorts) are intended to give students credentials and experiences relevant to internships, co‑ops and jobs.

The board thanked student presenters and teachers and invited board members and community members to visit classrooms and see projects in person.

Ending: The high school presentation concluded before the meeting moved on to public participation and the treasurer’s financial forecast.