TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) -
Vail School District's Andrada Polytechnic High School opens Wednesday. But parents and students took a look inside the school today, and so did we.
The new school has a different layout all under one roof with a common area for studying and eating, much like a college community.
The change in structure includes teaching student how to manage their time in the real world.
School doesn't start for two more days but it is already crawling with students and parents.
"My son and I passed by here a couple nights ago and I wanted to come back to school," said parent Kris Bowman.
Junior Kyeron Bowman will be one of the 500 students at the new school this year. They will be given an open time during the day for each of them to manage as they take elective in high demand fields of health care, bioscience or automotive,
"We specifically chose those fields because they're not only in demand but they have the potential to have significant salaries after students graduate. They also have the potential to go on into other things," said Darcy Mentone.
"After high school, colleges, workplaces expect that when you're given time that isn't directly supervised, you're going to find something worthwhile and productive to do. And that is exactly what we're hoping students leave this school with. The ability to manage their own time," Calvin Baker said.
Deciding just what to spend their time on doesn't seem to be a problem among the students.
"I want to do bioscience to go into, like computer engineering. And so, by having that as a field I can to into college having something good to go with it," said Kyeron.
Vocational education in those areas, health care and automotive, will also be open for other students participating in Pima County's Joint Technology Education District, or the voter approved JTED.
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