BY KYLER DUNHAM & EMILLIO LIM

South students are given the opportunity to attend and experience new and improved technological classes in the new Maize Career Academy Building that was added on to Maize High School.

The academy is set to give students a more interactive approach to their courses, and this allows staff to have advanced equipment that gives students more experience with the curriculum for each class. For example, Anatomy and Physiology uses Z-Space, a 3-D computer system which gives students an interactive touch surrounding the aspects of the human body.

“It provides students better opportunities with newer equipment,” Allison Klock, South’s assistant principal, said. “Our building was also running out of space so we did it since our district was growing so much we put it in a central location to service both students kind of in a neutral facility and we built that state of the art facility for it to be able to better educate our students.”

With the added areas to South such as the new athletic entrance, expanded cafeteria, FFA classrooms and the new locker rooms located near the front end of the football stadium, South didn’t have enough space to dedicate for each career class.

“The first day of the semester was when students were able to go in there for the first time, teachers were able to go in Dec. 22,” Klock said.

The building offers many classes previously held at both South and Maize High. The space is given to a range of different careers.

“It’s huge and really nice,” Ashley Slaughter, 11, said. “They teach anatomy, health science, CNA, engineering, law and public safety, and robotics.”

During a discussion over the bond issue and releasing a cite cost for the building improvements and adding new buildings to the USD266 district, The Wichita Eagle reported how the new career academy building cost $9 million dollars to build.

“Right when you walk in there are rooms with nice chairs and it’s nice,” Slaughter said. “The building will benefit the students by teaching more and all of the new technology they have.”

South student, Andrew Bliss, 11, looks into a microscope. The microscope is a new piece of equipment available to students at the Maize Career Academy. Photo by A. Wilks