By Christine Reid

KT&FP Senior Editor

For Kingfisher High School students interested in exploring more potential career options, not even the sky is the limit.

Aviation, basic firefighting, basic culinary skills and hospitality and tourism management are just some of the programs added to the KHS schedule, Erin Michael, KHS assistant principal and curriculum director, said.

More electives have been added at the junior high level, too.

“We have too many kids who get lost and can’t find their way until they get out of high school, if ever,” she said. “We’re giving them

[See Classes, Page 2] more opportunities to explore their interests and I think our kids are going to be very well served.”

Here’s a rundown on some of the new classes:

“You Can Fly” Program

KHS is one of 50 high schools in the state currently offering this four-year, grant-funded program, Michael said.

“We were approached by Paula Kedy (aerospace and aviation education coordinator at the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission) about applying for this grant,” she said. “The curriculum is free and the grant pays for the materials and instructor training.” Kurt Kaya is teaching the program and attended a week-long training this summer in preparation.

Depending on student interest, the program can be expanded to two sections and an enrollment of up to 30.

“We’ll start with freshmen and then offer it to upperclassmen if we have spaces left,” Michael said. “If the program is going well and continues to grow, we’ll add another instructor.”

For the first two and a half years of the program, students follow the same curriculum.

“Halfway through junior year, students will switch between manned flight and drone flight,” Michael said.

Currently, actual flying time required to become a licensed pilot has not been funded, but Michael hopes to be able to partner with the Kingfisher Municipal Airport to obtain grants for that when the time comes.

“The flight time portion is really, really expensive, so it depends on how much money we can find and how many kids we have who are taking it all the way through.

“Right now, it’s all flexible and we have two years to see where we are and make those decisions.”

Firefighting I

Kingfisher Fire Chief Tony Stewart hopes offering firefighter training in the high school will allow his department to attract and retain more hometown personnel.

“We ran out of hometown people to select from a long time ago and now everybody we’re hiring is from out of town and it’s kind of hard to keep them here,” he said.

The year-long program is open to seniors and will consist of bookwork as well as hands-on skills.

Students also will receive required hazmat training and participate in a live burn at the end of the year, both conducted through Oklahoma State University Fire Service Training, Stewart said.

“Those who pass their testing will be certified firefi ghters and we will offer them positions as volunteer firefighters, which is the first step toward becoming a fulltime firefighter with us,” Stewart said.

Kingfisher firefighter Mitch Tollefson will teach the class, assisted by Richard Butts, Ryan Gibson, James Schroeder, J.R. Williams, Taylor Farris, Cliff Crow and Tyler Girard, Stewart said.

“We’ll see how this year goes and how far we get,” he said. “Down the road, we may add EMT training.”

Culinary Basic Skills

Open to freshmen through seniors, this course focuses on food and workplace safety, kitchen management basics and culinary exploration.

Students will learn to prepare breakfast foods, sauces, stocks and soups and learn the science of baking, with emphasis on cooking and preparing meals from scratch.

Students will also learn food safety and sanitation, common food decisions, meal management and portion control and also study the food industry.

Food will be prepared on a weekly basis.

Hospitality & Tourism

Open to all high school students, this class provides an introduction to the hospitality industry, which includes lodging, travel and tourism, recreation, amusements, attractions and food and beverage operations.

Basic skills such as communication, time management and customer service are emphasized.

Students will be exposed to Oklahoma’s various travel destinations and tourism events in each county will be highlighted. Both the culi-nary arts and hospi-tality and tourism classes will be taught by family and consumer science teacher Melissa Hardison, Michael said.

The classes are just a few of the new programs added this year, she said.

Some others include jazz band, E-Sports, and news and sports broadcasting in the high school and a rotation of Spanish, family and computer science, leadership and photography electives in junior high.

Michael, who also serves as secondary curriculum director, has been working with the faculty on curricu-lum mapping, so each section of each subject learns the same core concepts.