FLORENCE — Boone County's three high schools will use a $495,000 state grant to beef up their curricula.

        The grant, from the state Department of Education's Kentucky High School Reform Initiative, lasts until 2004. It is being used at Boone County, Conner and Ryle high schools to:

        • Create an information technology curriculum that will qualify graduates to create Web pages and install and repair computer systems.

        • Strengthen graduation requirements in health/physical education and vocational education.

        • Provide more remedial instruction for students in danger of failing.

        • Offer more opportunities for advanced students.

        “We'll all be at different levels of implementing (programs),” Ryle Principal Randall Cooper said.

        Pat Murray, district director of curriculum and assessment, said what the three schools are doing is based on High Schools That Work, a Southern Regional Education Board program to improve education in middle and high schools.

        Boone County Principal Mike Sander said money would be used to train teachers and for stipends for before- and after-school programs.

        But though the schools are using the money for basically the same things, there are differences in emphasis. Mr. Sander talks about filling “learning gaps” at his Florence campus. He said an advisory committee is being formed.

        Among the early plans: increasing the health/physical education requirement for graduation from one semester to a full year; and making vocational education a required course instead of an elective.

        The move to expand physical education will allow the school's program to cover team sports — a state requirement. Mr. Sander said the school now has time to cover only individual sports in physical education classes.

        Mr. Sander said his school has already instituted an after-school program in which teachers meet with small groups of students who have failed courses to provide extra tutoring.

        “We're trying to get them caught up so they graduate on time,” Mr. Sander said. “The teacher gets to know the students. We've had one student promoted to the next grade level.”

        Other plans for Boone County include creating a remedial summer program for eighth-graders about to enter high school and recruiting more students for dual-credit courses that can be applied both to high school graduation and at Northern Kentucky University and Thomas More College.

        Mr. Cooper said Ryle's “Information Technology Career Major” would begin with the 2002-03 school year. It will allow graduates of the Union school to work on Microsoft, A+, Novell and other computer systems and serve as a basis for further education.

        At Conner, the focus is on redesigning curriculum. Principal Mike Blevins said by the 2003-04 school year, the Hebron school will be organized by “career academies” instead of departments to help students prepare for college or go straight to the work force.

        For example, a math and science academy would show students what to expect in engineering, building construction or pre-medicine; while health/physical education would help students considering careers in athletic training or sports management.

        “We want students to have an idea of what the career they choose entails,” Mr. Blevins said. “We want to make the curricula (for) real-world situations.”

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