Barren County High School hosts state wide education event

Officials from 29 school districts throughout Kentucky gathered at Barren County High School today.

Every fall ‘The Kentucky Innovation Lab Network’ holds a meeting for education professionals across the Commonwealth. This year the event is being hosted in South Central Kentucky at Barren County High School.

“Well I think that Barren County is a great example of what’s happening across our country in education. We’re realizing that we need to make a way for every student in our district and sometimes that’s not the traditional college pathway, it may be a technical pathway, but we need to find something that every student can engage in, and their interests can be met.” says David Cook, with the Kentucky Department of Education. 

This annual event provides educators new innovative approaches to education.

“We think it’s a great opportunity for us to network with other visionaries and those who are doing the innovations around the state in the cutting edge for educational reform.” says Scott Harper, the Barren County Schools Director of Instruction Technology. 

Many of these ideas Barren County High School has already put into place inside their new state-of-the-art ‘Innovation Zone’, which provides career pathway programs for students.

“Very proud obviously, we have this place that we show off a little bit. We want people to see that we put so much hard work into this, so many people have, and we are very, very proud of it. It gives us a chance to share what we are doing and steal some ideas from other folks. It’s all about being the best we can be.” says Brad Johnson, the principal of Barren County High School. 

During today’s meeting Barren County High School students gave guided tours around the building. Educators got a chance to see the culinary arts, engineering, health science, and technology programs.

“Kids are getting experiences here whether they want to change what they want to do. For me, I was in the biomedical program and now I am shifting more towards media arts. So being able to kind of change your mind set is great but also getting the experience here is wonderful too.” says Brennan Crain, a student at BCHS.

“They provide such a unique opportunity that most kids our age don’t have. It gives us a foot in the door at such an early age for different things that we wouldn’t see at 16, 17, 18 years old.” says Emily Pedigo, another student at BCHS.

The annual Kentucky Innovation Lab Network meeting continues at Barren County High School through tomorrow.