Operation Preparation: EIS helps students plan future

The state’s focus on preparing students for life beyond high school has fallen in line with work Elizabethtown Independent Schools has done for years.

Neal Cardin

T.K. Stone Middle School teacher Christa Brangers, right, watches students as they work on a math quiz Thursday.

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Neal Cardin

T.K. Stone Middle School teacher Christa Brangers answers a question Thursday for student Alyssa Scott during math statistics class.

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Neal Cardin

T.K. Stone Middle School teacher Sheryl Hamilton checks on students work Thursday during practical living career studies class.

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Elizabethtown High School and T.K. Stone Middle School held Power Pact events earlier this month in which students spoke to advisers about the upcoming year’s classes and reviewed options regarding careers and colleges.

This was a first for the middle school and the 13th year for the high school. Events were held in conjunction with Operation Preparation, a Kentucky Department of Education program that asks districts to focus in March on preparing students for their future.

The event, while long established at the high school, met many of the goals of the new education department program, said Bonnie Young, school/community liaison at Elizabethtown High. Close to 90 percent of incoming ninth- through 12-graders attended and reviewed information from

local businesses and several colleges. They also looked at Individual Learning Plans.

“It’s just a huge event for Elizabethtown High School,” Young said.

T.K. Stone administration wanted another avenue of communication with parents, Principal Beth Mather said.

“We thought this would be an excellent way to do that,” she said.

Incoming sixth-graders received supply lists and learned about new middle school elements such as lockers and class changes. Incoming seventh- and eighth-graders and their parents discussed test scores with teachers, options for elective classes and students’ learning plans.

While Operation Preparation is focused on students’ future plans, Mather said it is important for parents to be part of the discussion.

Operation Preparation is part of the state’s focus on college and career readiness. School district superintendents and boards of education have pledged to increase the readiness rate by 50 percent by 2015.

Kelly Cantrall can be reached at (270) 505-1747 or kcantrall@thenewsenterprise.com.