K-12 Education

Administrators outlined the district's legislative priorities at a Thursday morning meeting.

The new trays look very similar to Styrofoam, but break down in 9 months to a year. Styrofoam can stay in a landfill for 400 to 1,000 years.

In 2010, Columbia will welcome a new high school that will provide families with another option rather than public schooling. Columbia’s first Catholic high school, dubbed Regional Catholic High school for now, will give families of faith a secondary schooling option for their children after elementary school.

The Social Security Administration announced Tuesday that counselors will continue to pay their retirement into Public School Retirement Security. Meanwhile, Missouri educators met Tuesday with the state Office of Administration.

The $16 million school, which will eventually house 400 students, is scheduled to open in 2010.

Hickman High School's Just Hip-Hop club won two local competitions last year and hopes to compete nationally in 2009.

The future of the Kansas City School of the Arts charter is uncertain because a sponsor has not signed on.

A ruling that will force more Columbia School employees to pay into Social Security could have a big impact on the district, its employees and the retirement system.

The former president of Allen Village Charter School in Kansas City was ordered to pay restitution for embezzling money from the school.

The Social Security Administration has informed Missouri school districts that only teachers, principals and a few other positions are exempt from paying into Social Security.

The numbers of students taking the SAT has risen 30 percent since 1998; the number of ACT-takers has risen 43 percent.

At Rock Bridge and Hickman High Schools, students don't have to follow the traditional path of picking French, German, Latin or Spanish to fill Missouri's foreign language requirement. Since 1990, Columbia Public Schools has offered Japanese as an alternative language for students to learn.

More than an hour of Monday night's Columbia Public School Board meeting centered around discussion of the achievement gap among the district's students.

Several of the protesters want the Columbia officer removed from the school district or even the force entirely.

New Haven students celebrated with a program on American history and patriotism.

In a unanimous decision, the Columbia Independent School's board of trustees chose Scott Gibson III as the new head of the school.

Columbia Public Schools will decide whether to amend its budget to reflect the uncertain economic climate at Monday's school board meeting, Chief Operations Officer Nick Boren said.

Smithton and Lange middle schools hosted the forums Wednesday night.

Patricia Powell taught at West Junior High School for 20 years but recently added to her list of accomplishments.