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Seniors at Bell County’s high schools may be making history by participating in a financial literacy pilot program.

Officials working with the program say that if the seniors post-test scores show enough of improvement from the pre-test, the financial program may be implemented into Kentucky’s school curriculum as early as next year.

Helping to launch the program into all three high schools in Bell County — Bell, Middlesboro and Pineville high schools — were Norman Cornelius, Bell-Whitley Community Action Agency (CAA) Housing Coordinator, Rebecca Miller, UK Cooperative Extension Service (CES) Family and Consumer Science Agent, and Brandy Calvert, the 4-H Agent for Youth Development in Bell County.

The idea for the program originated from Cornelius.

A member of a special needs subcommittee in Frankfort, Cornelius said he recently addressed what he thought was a big problem — the lack of financial education in the school systems prior to students graduating from high school.

After some debate in Frankfort on how to move forward with the program, Dr. Robert Flashman, an extension specialist for family resource management with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, became involved.

Flashman decided to use the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) High School Financial Planning Program for the project because the UK extension office was already developing a workbook with the NEFE program.

According to the Bell County representatives, the workbook is classroom ready and reader friendly, preventing teachers from having to develop individual lesson plans. Each student receives a workbook that goes along with the teacher’s workbook.

The UKCES delivers research-based programming to communities throughout the commonwealth at no cost.

Bell-Whitley Community Action Agency (CAA) is located at 129 North Pine Street in Pineville. Call 337-3044 for more information.

The Bell County Extension Office is located in the Bell County Courthouse. The phone number is 337-2376.

Reina P. Cunningham can be contacted via email at rpcunningham@civitasmedia.com or by phone at 606-248-1010, ext. 205.