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The Kansas State Board of Education confirmed several changes to the high school graduation requirements starting for the class of 2028 on Nov. 10’. This included two career readiness activities — determined by their Individual Plan of Study on Xello.

Students will need to complete two post-secondary assets from a list of career or real-world activities aligned with their IPS, such as apprenticeships, SAT scores and even 90% attendance at school

The changes to the Kansas high school graduation requirements that have been the same for the past 20 years have been in the making since 2021.

Students will still need to have a minimum of 21 credits to graduate, changing the English requirement to 3.5 credits and 0.5 credits of communications, one STEM credit, and a half credit of P.E.

According to Kansas school board member Melanie Haas, the main goal of the new requirements is to utilize students’ Plan of Study to experiment with what they want to do after high school.

“The goal of their graduation change was to create more flexibility so that students would have an opportunity to really explore and figure out what fits them,” Haas said.

Indian Hills Middle School has not told the current eighth graders about the changes yet. Eighth grader 

Chase Reeves feels that they need to notify incoming freshmen as soon as possible.Chase Reeves believes that these new requirements may not have an impact on some students with a good idea of what their IPS is. But for students that don’t know what they want to do after highschool, it could be more difficult.

“We’re getting kind of close to enrollment, I think Indian Hills needs to tell us about it,” Reeves said. “I think for some students it will be a bit more challenging but for me, I think it’ll be easier.”

East alumni Brett Goodwin and his husband Alan Tipton bought The Learning Tree — a toy store in Corinth Square—on Nov. 10 and are currently revamping the store while connecting with older customers.

“Our number one goal is not to screw up anything and make sure we keep the magic that [the store] has,” Brett said. “We’re really proud of the book section. Books and literature [are] a really great way to keep connected with people.”

Previous owners Jonny and Jane Girson sold the store to retire after founding it in 1996. Learning Tree employee and senior Nora Herring has already noticed changes at work.

“[The new owners] are bringing some new, young energy to the store,” Nora Herring said. “I’m really excited because I think that it’s really good to have a small, local business being run by a gay couple.”

Brett and Alan were inspired to purchase the toy store after seeing an advertisement in the Shawnee Mission Post.

“We read about the opportunity at the Learning Tree this summer, and I just knew right away that we had to call them,” Brett said.

When Brett was a high schooler at East, he worked at Village Toy — a former store in the Prairie Village shops.

“I knew from that age that I’d someday have a place of my own,” Brett said.

Debate made it to the quarterfinals of the 6A two Speaker State Championship on Jan. 13 and are preparing for their next virtual tournament on Feb. 17.

All four East teams — consisting of two people each — moved on from the preliminary rounds into the top 32 teams, but only two teams made it to the top 16.

Juniors Sophie Leonard and Lucy Pace made it to the quarterfinals with the highest finish and a final record of 6-3.

 “I definitely learned that everyone is beatable because not only did a lot of good teams  get out in early rounds,” Pace said. “It kind of humbled us a little bit which definitely needs to happen in the future.”

 The teams prepared for the championship with speed drills, and researching their opponents tournament records and arguments, according to sophomore Ishaan Home.

“We have to look at our opponents’ arguments on the Wiki Online where we see and disclose our arguments to each other,” Home said.
Junior Jaxson Terreros and senior Maddie Doyle will join Pace and Leonard at the virtual Spartan Green and Gold Tournament on Feb. 17.