Star Academy, state’s first and only program, celebrated with ribbon cutting, visit from governor at SJHS

Sikeston Junior High opens Missouri’s only Star Academy, a $970,000 hands-on, school-within-a-school pilot, celebrated with a ribbon cutting and visit from Gov. Mike Kehoe.

By Leonna Heuring~Standard Democrat

Students and staff members of the Star Academy along with Sikeston R-6 School District administrators and school board members, community partners and state legislators, including Sen. Jamie Burger, Sen. Jason Bean, Rep. David A. Dolan, former Rep. Donnie Brown and Gov. Mike Kehoe and First Lady Claudia Kehoe, pose during the ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday, April 17 outside Sikeston Junior High School, where the Star Academy is housed. The pilot program is the first and only in the state of Missouri.
Leonna Heuring/Standard Democrat

Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series about Sikeston R-6 School District’s Star Academy. 

SIKESTON — Sikeston Junior High School marked the launch of Missouri’s only Star Academy pilot program with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that brought together students, local officials and Gov. Mike Kehoe, who was welcomed with an outdoor performance by the SJHS band of the school song, “The Red and the Black.”

Prior to the ceremonial ribbon cutting outside the school building, Sikeston R-6 Superintendent Shannon Holifield addressed the crowd gathered in the school’s library. In addition to the governor and district officials, those in attendance included Star Academy students and staff, Sen. Jamie Burger, Sen. Jason Bean, Rep. David A. Dolan, former Rep. Donnie Brown; Sikeston City Manager J.D. Douglass and representatives with Bootheel Progress With Partnership and Big Brothers, Big Sisters.

Holifield said the Star Academy is possible because of the way the community, school board and state delegation work together.

“As I look around this room as the superintendent of Sikeston Public Schools, I am so honored and thankful for our community members, our leadership in the city and our region,” Holifield said. “I look and I see partnerships. I see Big Brothers, Big Sisters representatives and other partnerships that we have. I also see my school board members. I see our Star Academy partners.”

She repeated a line she said many in Sikeston have heard from her before: “As your school goes, so goes your community,” and added that brings responsibility for her, her leadership team and the school board, along with “a community that comes to the table.”

“We have great partnerships that allow us to bridge gaps, to advance in ways that I don’t feel like other communities always have,” the superintendent said. “And you can’t do that without a community that shows up and shows out. So, I’m just thankful for all of you in the room.”

In September, Sikeston Junior High School become the first school in Missouri to implement a nationally recognized hands-on learning model during the 2025-2026 school year. By mid-October, the Star Academy was up and running.

The program, funded by a $970,000-grant outlined in Missouri House Bill 2.380 and awarded by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, serves up to 80 students at Sikeston Junior High.

Star Academy is a nationally recognized “school-within-a-school” model that transforms learning by allowing students to experience core subjects — math, science, English and social studies — through hands-on projects, experiments and collaborative activities. Instead of simply learning from textbooks, students engage in dynamic, real-world applications of their lessons, according to Holifield.

Beyond academics, Star Academy introduces students to more than 100 different careers while helping them develop essential life skills such as teamwork, responsibility and problem-solving. Sikeston R-6 aligns the program with career pathways at the Sikeston Career and Technology Center and workforce needs within the local community.

Holifield also addressed the Star Academy during the ceremony.

“I believe we have some of the greatest kiddos that we could ask for in our schools, and I’m thankful for what you’ve done,” she told the students. “I thank you for the chance you’ve taken and being a part of Star Academy. You are the only students in the state of Missouri that are in a Star Academy, and that is because of some of the decisions that were made at this table in front of you, so I thank you for being a part of that.”

In addition to Kehoe, Holifield thanked Burger, Bean and Dolan. She credited building leaders including head principal Crystie Ressel, academic principal Tosha Whitter, counselors, teachers and maintenance staff with reshaping schedules and classrooms on short notice after the district learned it would receive the academy.

“We had started school and we came to them and said, ‘Guess what? We’re getting Star Academy,’” Holifield recalled. “And in just a few weeks, they had rearranged a schedule; they had moved teachers around. Teachers bought in; our maintenance department came in and moved classrooms.

She continued: “It took an entire building to make this work, and we could not have done it any better than under the leadership of Ms.Witter and Mrs. Ressel and our staff. The Star Academy staff was here every day by our side helping. I appreciate every one of you and our staff. I see our counselors (in the crowd). They did a lot of work on scheduling and working with kids and getting these kids placed.”

She framed the state’s decision to fund the pilot as recognition of the work already underway in Sikeston.

“Bulldog Nation, we have worked really hard so that people will notice who we are,” Holifield said. “When you are chosen to be the only district to pilot and to work through an academy like this, and money is invested in you from your government, that tells me that we’re doing some things right. I’m thankful to be a part of that, and I celebrate all of you and this moment.”

Kehoe said he has been to Sikeston many times in recent years, citing visits for the rodeo, tornado cleanup and to see the rebuilding “after the Taco John’s roof was taken off.”

“I’m a big fan of what’s going on here,” the governor said of Sikeston. “The community pride is incredible. The Chamber of Commerce is one of — maybe the best— in the state, and of course the students.

“We’re here because of you guys,” Kehoe said as he looked at the students present. “You’re our future. You’re going to take care of us old people some day, and we think the Star Academy model is a great product to maybe get the help we need to make sure you get to whatever level of success that you want to get to.”

He tied the academy to Missouri’s broader workforce efforts.

“Your future is bright, and I think you’ve got another tool here now in the Sikeston school district that will help you get to where you want to go,” Kehoe said. “So, we’re grateful to be here and be with all the leadership here in the community.”

Burger told those gathered that when he and Bean, who both represent Sikeston, first heard about the Star Academy pilot, they said, “‘Why not Sikeson?’ And it’s worked.”

“I think you have exemplified what we were after,” Burger told the students and crowd. “It is a real honor to be here in Sikeston today. What’s happening at Sikeston Junior High isn’t just another program; it is something special.

He continued: “This community was chosen as the only school in Missouri who received funding for the Star Academy, and that says a lot about the leadership, the educators and the commitment to students right here.”

Burger framed the academy as student-centered.

“Star Academy is about meeting students where they are and helping them succeed with what works for them,” he said. “Not every student learns the same way, and this program recognizes that. Through hands-on, project-based learning, we’re giving students the opportunity to stay engaged, build confidence and connect what they’re learning to the real world. This is an investment, not just financially, but in our people, and like Governor Kehoe said, in our future, in communities like Sikeston that are willing to step up and lead the way.”

He noted the million-dollar grant behind the program and said “what matters more is what it represents.”

“When we give students the right tools, the right environment and the right support, they can succeed,” Burger said.

Bean said he believes he represents “the best people in the state of Missouri” and linked that to Sikeston’s understanding of “what the word community is and you know how to do it.”

Dolan reminded the students they are who this program is about.

“We have made you the front and center of this program,” Dolan told the students. “We want you to succeed in this program, and we want you to go on and succeed in your life. So that’s the purpose of all of this. We can stand up here and encourage you and be behind you, but now it’s up to you. Go forward, and do great things.”

Principal Crystie Ressel recognized the four classroom teachers who anchor the academy at Sikeston Junior High: science teacher Jay Nugent, math teacher Brittany Evans, English language arts teacher Mary Cowell Henson and social studies teacher Donna Turnbo. She then introduced a group of student ambassadors who would later lead tours for Kehoe, the first lady and other guests.

“This program represents an opportunity to educate our students in a more hands-on and real-world fashion in order to be able to reach every student at their potential,” Ressel said. “We are especially grateful to Gov. Kehoe, all of our legislative members, our Sikeston community, for their continued support and commitment to making programs like this possible in our state. Thank you to our Star Academy team for your support as we move forward with our program. Thank you to our staff and all of our students in the building in helping to make this program successful.”

Ressel closed her remarks with the same message she said she gives students after daily announcements.

“Go be the kind kid today,” she said. “I love you — and go Bulldogs.”

The ceremony moved outside for the ribbon cutting, then back inside as student ambassadors divided visitors into four groups for classroom tours.

“The Star Academy model here in Sikeston is really the pilot for our entire state, and we wanted to see and really talk to the kids

Read full article here: https://www.standard-democrat.com/news/star-academy-states-first-and-only-program-celebrated-with-ribbon-cutting-visit-from-governor-at-sjhs-0baef0d0