The Kingston School District has posted proposals online which will change their approach. As YNN's Alexandra Weishaupt tells us, school leaders hope it will better prepare high school students for college and future careers.

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KINGSTON, N.Y. --“What we’re trying to do is replicate what some of the best high schools do around the country over the next few years and bring that to Kingston High School,” said Kingston High School Principal Adrian Manuel.

And so the Kingston School District is posting online new proposals for Kingston High School Academies, which are smaller, more personalized learning communities.

Manuel says kids need aspirations to fuel their motivation and the focus isn't only improving graduation rates, but also gives students direction when they leave KHS.

“Each pathway will offer a different opportunity for college, career readiness, whether its entry level jobs right out of high school or it’s to go into a graduate program or an undergrad program that students are ready and prepared,” said Manuel.

“They will be theme based on such things as government, healthcare, health sciences, science, technology, engineering,” said Board of Education President James Shaughnessy.

It's the beginning of a five year process to transform a large campus of more than 2,000 kids to a campus of five to seven academies with 300 to 400 students.

Over the last few months, teams of teachers drafted the proposals put forth and are now looking for feedback from the community.

Freshman entering in the fall will all be in ninth grade academy. Upperclassmen will enroll in either one or two different academies based on the feedback on the proposals over the next month.

The school board president says he doesn't expect the future plans to affect the budget.
“It will just be organizing ourselves in a different way and using the same budgetary resources,” said Shaughnessy.

“We want to bring KHS into the 21st century and there’s no reason why our school can’t be just as competitive as some of the schools in the country, so this is the first step in that process,” said Manuel.

To view the proposals, visit kingstoncityschools.org.