Ribbon cutting for Star Academy at Bogalusa High School
Published 4:18 pm Thursday, September 28, 2023
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BOGALUSA, La. – The newly implemented Star Academy at Bogalusa High School (BHS) was celebrated during a ceremonial ribbon cutting today. Community leaders were given a tour of the hallway dedicated to the hands-on learning program. “Students do their best work when they can touch it, feel it, and see it with their own eyes,” said BHS Principal Eric Greely. “That’s what the Star Academy curriculum does for us.”
Having already been implemented in three other parishes, the Star Academy program is helping bridge the educational gap created by the COVID-19 Pandemic. “With the learning loss that we had during the pandemic, we have a lot of challenges ahead of us and Star Academy is one of the programs put in place to help our students get back on track,” Byron Hurst, the Bogalusa Schools Superintendent said. “I’m confident, I’m hopeful and I’m pretty sure that this is going to be the catalyst for moving Bogalusa forward.”
With the program encompassing 6th through 8th grade at BHS, it is changing the way students think and analyze. “The students are more involved in the classroom,” LaVerne Cook, School Board member for District Two said. “The increased awareness of students and the new connections with their teachers makes them more observant and constructive.”
One of the students favorite parts of the Star Academy is the increased use of technology in the classroom, as every student uses a computer to assist with their classwork. “We live in a technology advanced world, so we have to incorporate technology in everything that we do because that’s where the future is headed,” Hurst said.
The new curriculum hasn’t been easy to implement at BHS. Greely said that there have been learning curves for students and teachers. “We’ve had to learn how to work all parts of the curriculum, including the experiments that we have for children to do, which workbooks to use and how to go about teaching students the standards and objectives of the curriculum.”
According to the program website, the overall goal is to re-engage students in a holistic way with a focus on succeeding in not only school but the workforce and in the community. Greely said “We’re using Star Academy to ensure that our students are prepared when they graduate from Bogalusa High School.”
About Timothy Holdiness
Timothy Holdiness is a native of Louisiana and has been published in several state, national and international publications. He has earned two undergraduate degrees in Biology, most recently from Northwestern State University in 2022. Notably, Holdiness was the 2014 Microsoft Office Specialist United States Champion in PowerPoint 2010.
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