Philosophy
The Family and Consumer Sciences teachers at Kearney High School, have made an extremely unified effort to support each other and to integrate courses with connections to family and life, and connections to work and community.

We have worked to fit our classes to the Essential Learnings in Nebraska which are cross walked with the National FCS standards and with State Standards in math, science, social studies, and language arts-reading, writing. We recognize that we are a part of the students' whole educational process at Kearney High School. We infuse writing, reading, thinking processes – decision making and critical thinking, as well as technology in nearly all of our courses.

We currently offer 16 courses to grades 9-12. Our enrollment requests have increased from 685 students in 2000 to 1071 students in 2005. The department faculty increased from two full time equivalencies to three and one-half time, which was all the budget would allow, although more was needed to meet all requests. Last year, we had approximately 1100 requests for our courses and we were able to meet about 850 of those requests.

The following courses have been planned and offered for articulation with programs at Central Community College, a local community college:
- Parenting, Child Development – leading to early childhood education
- Foods I, Advanced Foods, Culinary arts – leading to hospitality and food service careers
- Health Care Sciences I and II (Medical Terminology) and Clinical Nutrition – needed in any health care career
- Leadership Enhancement and Development – students develop an individual project in their own area of study

The Family and Consumer Sciences Program at Kearney High School is not a program developed just by one person – we truly work as a team. I’ve been fortunate to attend numerous national conferences that have provided professional development. As I attended these, I was always on the look out for ideas that could be used in any of our courses. Other teachers in the department have also attended seminars and workshops and they’ve done the same. We meet monthly with the middle schools so that we can keep our courses in alignment – building on what the students have experienced previously.


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Impact on Students, School, and Community, and Testimonials

Students: Comments from course about Child Development:
- I learned things about children I didn’t know – will help when I become a pediatrician
- I’m so glad I took this class because I’ve gotten job opportunities with Head Start
- This will be useful if I pursue my career in child psychology and even now when I babysit
- I’m considering teaching so this class will be of benefit

Similar comments are made about other courses every time we ask.

School: Science instructor says, “We are very fortunate to have a dynamic group of teachers in our Family and Consumer Sciences Department….extensive, modern, and constantly being revised and improved.
Theater instructor states, “I am so impressed with the class offerings and the benefits it creates for the job market and our community.”
Math instructor states, “My geometry classes have participated in an integrated lesson dealing with designing and creating quilts. It was a positive experience for my students and they still come in and look at the quilts to identify what piece they made.”

Community – Advisory Council: We meet three times a year with our advisory council. The most recent comment from a health care provider and teacher from Central Community College was “I’m so impressed with what you are offering to the students at KHS."