By Matt Hoover
USD 475 Commmunications Coordinator
JUNCTION CITY, Kan. - What started as a simple effort to bring back a morning announcement program has grown into something much more meaningful at the H.D. Karns Alternative School.During the 2025-26 school year, Cale Prater, a special education teacher at H.D. Karns, took the initiative to revive the school’s morning announcements after the program was no longer being run.
For Prater, bringing the announcements back was about more than simply sharing the day’s news. It was an opportunity to give students a sense of responsibility, while encouraging them to be more engaged in their school community.“At the time, I had a student who had participated in the previous year and was struggling to arrive at school on time, so I saw it as an opportunity to provide him with additional motivation and responsibility,” said Prater.It worked as Prater began reaching out to teachers to see which students might be interested in taking turns reading the announcements. Before long, a community was built as Prater formed a small crew of four regular participants, who kept coming back time after time.
Those participants, which consist of Da’ariah Taylor, Shy Galarza, Zane Vickers, Karlie Dahl and Theresa Strong, took ownership and have become an important part of the school. See, what began as a way to provide one student with a little extra motivation turned into a team that consistently showed up and took pride in their role.“This year, the original four students have remained involved and we welcomed an additional student who approached me about joining the crew,” said Prater.
Yes, the morning announcements may only take a few minutes each day, but for Taylor, Galarza, Vickers, Dahl and Strong, those few minutes provide an opportunity to build confidence, develop responsibility and know that they have an important role to play at H.D. Karns.