Members of the Shawnee Heights school board took the show on the road Monday night, beginning its cycle of meeting at each district school. Up first: Shawnee Heights Middle School.
The first order of business was greeting a dozen exchange students from Leer, Germany, a rural town west of Hamburg near the North Sea.
German teacher Hildegarde Becker-Lipp has been arranging exchanges with the high school in her hometown of Leer, for 20 years. German students come to Shawnee Heights in October, and she takes her students to Germany in May.
Becker-Lipp said she is proud to see how the students enjoy and learn with the program, and how some former students have stayed with German language studies and are employed by German companies.
Her counterpart in Leer, Hans Schulz, had never been to Kansas before he agreed to be part of the exchange. Since then, he said he has come to know and appreciate Kansas and Kansans.
“I’ve come to love it,” he said, “The people, the landscape, the history and how friendly the host families have been.”
In their time here, the German students and their Shawnee Heights hosts have visited the Statehouse and governor’s mansion, hiked the Konza Prairie and attended a Shawnee Heights football game. Before they leave, they also will visit The University of Kansas and museums in the Kansas City area.
When in Germany, Becker-Lipp wants her students to do more than sightseeing. She wants them to be immersed in the language, with their host families and school lessons. In addition to attending school, Shawnee Heights students will visit Hamburg, Germany’s second-largest city, and the North Sea.
“It’s a stark contrast from the Midwest,” she said.
In other business, the board:
■ Heard from middle school teachers and administrators about student curriculum, projects and extracurricular opportunities.
■ Approved approximately $ 635,000 in payments for construction projects and change orders.
■ Heard plans to develop a student-run bank and apparel store in the high school south commons area as part of the renovations.
Board member Mark Becker didn’t attend the meeting. The next meeting is 7 p.m. Nov. 3 at Shawnee Heights High School.
