It’s just after lunchtime on a Thursday at Highlands and the news is about to go live.

The AV department of HHS is a hub of activity, alive with students working on the upcoming broadcast of the day’s news. Anchors run through their scripts as camera operators line up shots and producers feed information through the prompters. It’s an electric scene, and a technological layout the likes of which few high schools have access.

To see the effects of a community supporting the creativity and ideas of its students, one needn’t look farther than the third-floor studios of HHS, where a classroom leads into a full video production studio and, across the hall, a full radio station is ready to take the air.’’

The technology wing of Highlands High School is just one of several which have benefited from the Fort Thomas Education Foundation’s commitment to helping provide funds and underwrite grants which allow teachers and classrooms to create new horizons through innovative projects. With grants and assistance from FTEF, the technology department has seen an old broom closet renovated into a state-of-the-art podcasting lab and the addition of new cameras and computers to help further the reach of the school’s news, sports, and events broadcasting.

Additionally, the technology program and its students work with the Education Foundation to help create videos for the group’s annual Alumni of the Year and Teacher of the Year awards and accolades.

“The technology HHS has is really unheard of,” says technology teacher Bill Poff. “Students are coming up with their own stories and filming those stories, broadcasting and creating their own documentaries – we even have partnerships with local businesses, the police and fire departments.”

“Having access to the technology they are able to provide, the school gives us the opportunity to explore different experiences, so we are more adaptive when we leave,” said senior Owen Lecky.

Poff’s wish list for the program includes the ability to connect all Highlands sport venues to the network’s mothership at the high school, including fiberoptic cables from the soccer field renovation and the baseball field at Highland Park. With continued help and support from FTEF, the technology department, and so many other great Fort Thomas Schools organizations the sky remains the limit.