K-State Olathe celebrates five-year milestone
Today marks the fifth year of operation for K-State Olathe, since the campus first opened its doors to the Greater Kansas City area on April 25, 2011.
K-State Olathe specializes in food safety and food security, animal health and adult education. According to K-State Today, it also collaborates with K-12 schools in the Greater Kansas City area on programs focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Within the last five years, the Olathe campus has also introduced a master’s degree in the field industrial and manufacturing systems engineering. In addition, it is making progress toward developing an industrial and manufacturing systems engineering entrepreneurship course.
K-State Olathe is the first higher education facility supported by a local tax, according to K-State Today. Dan Richardson, the institution’s dean and CEO until June 2013, worked with the Kansas Bioscience Park and the Johnson County Education Research Triangle on the one-eighth cent sales tax proposal that was used to fund building the Olathe campus. Taxpayers approved this measure in 2008, and according to K-State Today, “the ongoing tax support has made it equivalent to one of the nation’s largest endowments ever to a higher education public institution initiative.”
“Establishing the K-State Olathe campus was an unprecedented, monumental, undertaking made successful by the tremendous foresight and collaboration of academic, industry, community and governmental leaders past and present,” Richardson said to K-State Today. “It was a career highpoint to take part in the entire process of funding, building, and starting academic and research programs to develop the campus.”
Washington Post rankings recognize MHS academic successes
The Washington Post recently announced that for the eighth consecutive year, Manhattan High School would have a spot on its “America’s Most Challenging High School” list.
The Washington Post surveys and ranks approximately 22,000 high schools across the country every year. According to K-State Today, public schools are ranked according to the following ratio: number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at the specific school and divided by the number of that same school’s graduating seniors.
According to the Little Apple Post, just over 1,925 schools made the Washington Post’s list — which amounts to only 9 percent of all the public schools in the U.S. Manhattan High School is actually one of only nine Kansas high schools on the list.
“I am incredibly proud of our students and staff for achieving this tremendous recognition for Manhattan High School,” Principal Greg Hoyt said to the Little Apple Post. “This accomplishment is not possible without students that are willing to step out and enroll in challenging courses, dedicated faculty members that take on the preparation of these rigorous courses, staff members that encourage students to accept the challenge, staff members that organize and prepare for the hundreds of exams that are administered, and parents that support their children throughout the process.”
