KERANS, Utah — Student journalists fill need for community newspaper

Students at Kerans high school publish a monthly issue of their school newspaper “The Cougar Claw.” Recently, they began distributing the paper to their town of roughly 35,000 people. 

The students wanted to begin covering events for the entire town after they went without a local publication for several years.

The paper has found itself connecting with older community members who aren’t as savvy with online media.

Students are happy to be covering a wider variety of news and connecting with a larger audience as they scale up their printing capacity to 6,500 copies every month

MENTOUR, Ohio — Students become hands on professionals

The Mentour school district purchased a house for renovation by students in a program to practice real life construction skills.

Students in this program spend half their day in school, and the other half on a construction site learning how to build all the aspects of a suburban house.

The school district partnered with a construction company who mentor the students.

The first year, the school board funded the first purchase of a house. Each year, the house the students built is sold and the profit is then used to purchase a property for next year.

Students can gain up to  two years worth of college credit for craft schools.

Naperville Central previously offered a program identical to this, however it was discontinued for reasons unknown to Central Times.

AURORA, Ill. — Gun threats cause extreme absences

Metea Valley highschool received threats of a shooting written bathroom stalls on three days in the week of Dec. 6.

Roughly 2000 students were absent on Thursday, the day depicted in the threat. All students and parents who chose to call in absent were excused. 

Some students choose not to come for their own safety, others chose not to attend because they felt it would not be worth coming if there were few people in school. Some students still attended due to fear of missing important work.

Local police began investigating the original student who wrote the message on Monday and found the student guilty of disorderly conduct.

The two students who echoed the threats were also investigated and found not to be credible.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Montessori high school to open in Indiana

In fall of 2020, a montessori high school is intended to open for ninth grade students.

The school is currently planning on leasing a wing of a church to start, but hoping to move to a bigger building in the future.

For now, school founder Eileen Mariani plans to use the library and other public spaces to learn outside of a classroom.

Montessori is a learning style that allows the student themselves to be more creative and tailor their education to themselves while still covering content.

Montessori style teaching is typically found in preschools and elementary schools, but benefits can still apply to older kids.

The school plans to accept only 18 students in their first year.