Southeast at the USD 259 Showcase

Ana Peralta, Reporter

This year at the USD 259 Showcase of Choices and Opportunities, Southeast represented what the school has to offer to students and to the parents of those students. 

“It’s a great opportunity for parents and community members to see what Wichita Public Schools has to offer. From pre-K all the way through high school. Here at Southeast of course we’re going to focus on many of the unique opportunities we have for learning for our students,” principal Ben Michell said. 

Southeast has many different classes and opportunities for students that are into more artistic or business required classes that students would be interested in. 

“We have a daughter that’s in eighth grade over at CMA which is down the street. We actually live across the street from Southeast,” parent Lorean Parra Kennedy said. “We’re just looking at options as far as schools and seeing if Southeast is a good one to maybe have her go too. She’s really interested in fashion. That’s something that she had maybe looked at as far as picking out classes and they don’t offer that over at Northeast. That’s one of the things she’s really interested in. That’s what we wanted to come to ask questions about.” 

This also includes opportunities for students interested in agriculture and other things students could be interested in. 

“If you look behind me. You can see the agriculture display. We have a small engine there. We have the stampede magazine which Mr. Christner and his student crew do an excellent job. Well, we have the best facilities by far. Our school is the newest and we keep in really good conditions. We have a great student body. One of the most diverse students’ bodies in the state. We just have great educators and young people that come to create a thriving educational environment,” Mitchell said. 

The Showcase is a great help for parents and students to see what the best options for their future and careers would be. 

“I’d just say for me personally, for parents just keep the open mind of different opportunities of different schools and don’t prejudge a school necessarily. High school, when I was going, had different misconceptions about schools,” parent Adrian Bolder said. 

This is very important for Southeast because of the impact that this leaves on parents and students. 

“Specifically, when our parents see that we have agriculture opportunities in our urban area,” Mitchell said. “When they see small engines. When they see that we have a great audio-visual component. They’ll think about some of the things that their kids have thought about that they wanted to do when they grew up. They get to dip their toes into it as a high school student.”