KCA is a school that goes well beyond traditional education.
Students are empowered to find their voice, encouraged to question, and prepared to shape the future.
We seek to prepare our graduates to be active, responsible participants in a continually diverse world. Through weekly, monthly, and yearly engagement opportunities, we empower our students to be thought leaders in their respective communities.
CREW Meetings
& Community Circles
KCA CREW is an integral part of our curriculum. In this "homeroom" type environment, students are grouped by grade level and a teacher is assigned as their leader. Each CREW meets two class periods per week.
CREW meetings focus on:
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Academic mentoring and tutoring
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School-wide service projects
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Self-exploration
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Developing a reflective attitude
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Post-high school planning and preparation
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Preparation for student-led parent/teacher conferences
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Being active KCA community members
In addition to the weekly CREW meetings, all students participate in a school-wide "community circle" during one class period once a month. The different CREWs alternate organizing, coordinating, and executing this all-school meeting.
Community Circles focus on:
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Participate in creatingf hands-on projects
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Tackling concerns of the student body
CREW meetings and community circle, as well as the academic classes at KCA, are designed to encourage and challenge students to observe, question, create, analyze and evaluate.
Student Reps-
KCA Board of Directors
Students are expected to not only take part in their education but also actively engage in their school and community.
Three students serve on the KCA School Board of Directors as student-elected representatives. As part of the school board, they take part in board and committee meetings, are involved in the strategic management and oversight of the school, and have full voting privileges.
Student input and leadership are extremely valuable and speaks to the essence of KCA.
And have you heard about our farm-to-table
lunch program?
Community
Involvement
Teaching students social responsibility includes a commitment to community service. Each KCA high school student are required to complete a community service project.
This lays a foundation wherein students learn and understand the importance of contributing to the community in which they live and how their involvement makes a difference in the world.
Chef Mark Zukaitis prepares familiar and new healthy dishes featuring local ingredients.
We believe in eating local--at least 50% of our lunches are made from local produce, cheese, milk, eggs, chicken, turkey, beef, and bison. We buy only whole grains and gluten-free options are available. Nothing is processed or refined.
Our students also have the benefit of growing, maintaining, and harvesting fresh vegetables and herbs from our school's garden. The vegetable gardens were established in 2007, beginning with only two raised beds, as a part of the Kansas City Community Gardens Edible Schoolyards program. Over the next five years, new beds were added and a hoop house was erected. Initially, the gardens were used as a means of connecting science classes with an outdoor lab of sorts, and the focus of the garden was on providing primarily greens and herbs for our kitchen.
The garden has always been maintained by volunteers, including students, parents, grandparents, faculty, alumni, alumni parents, and neighbors of the school.
