There soon may be a trio of communities in Kansas where teachers don’t have to go through a four-year university degree program before they start serving as K-12 teachers.

The Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday gave its support to an idea of a pilot program that would allow people who are working in the education field or have special skills related to education — perhaps as a paraeducator or as another type of district employee — to move into teaching roles without going through the standard process of a university education degree.

Instead, individuals in the program may work with community colleges and online providers that will measure and enhance their core skills needed for the teaching field.

Blake Flanders, president and CEO of the Kansas Board of Regents, said he and leaders at the Kansas State Department of Education are envisioning more of a “competency-based model where you would never have to leave the community.”

In consultation with the Kansas State Department of Education — which oversees K-12 schools — Flanders is preliminarily recommending that the pilot programs begin in Coffeyville, Colby and Dodge City.

All three of those cities have community colleges, and Flanders said the Kansas State Department of Education has indicated that school leaders in those districts are open to the idea. Flanders, however, said it has not been finalized that the three communities would participate in the pilot program.

Instead, more details about the pilot project need to be developed, and Wednesday’s approval by the Regents gave Flanders the green light to continue working on the program with the Kansas State Department of Education.

Flanders said there is a hope that the pilot project can be innovative in figuring out how to advance the careers of people who already have good real-life experience in the world of education.

“Maybe we have associate degree holders who may be working as paraeducators,” Flanders offered as an example. “How do we move those individuals forward in the teaching profession?”

The idea of a pilot program came out of a broader set of recommendations developed by a Regents task force that studied ways to address a growing shortage of teachers in the state.

That task force, which was led by University of Kansas School of Education Dean Rick Ginsberg, recommended the idea of a “teacher cadet” program that would allow school districts to hire people after they have completed a two-year community college degree, with the stipulation that they work toward a four-year teaching degree. That task force also recommended changes to several scholarship programs aimed at attracting students to the teaching profession, and raised the idea of paying student teachers, who provide classroom instruction as part of their degree but often are not paid to do so.

Flanders was tasked by the Board of Regents to take the full list of recommendations from the task force and pick a handful that he believed could be implemented relatively soon. He highlighted the pilot program, and also a recommendation that will make it easier for community college students who are studying to become teachers to transfer to public universities, like KU, to finish their degree. He also said work should be undertaken immediately to implement several of the literacy improvement strategies recommended by the task force, as the literacy issue is foundational to all the other issues facing teachers.

There was no word on when details of the pilot project might be finalized or when the three cities would officially be selected.

In other news, the Regents at their meeting Wednesday afternoon in Topeka:

• Approved an increase in insurance premiums for students who get their health insurance through a Regents program. About 6,600 students in the state use the Regents program. Most will see an increase of 6.5%, or about $173 per year. About 150 students who are in a higher risk pool will see their premiums increase by more than 8% or by about $430 a year.

• Authorized Kansas State Athletics and the university to pursue up to $40 million in bond debt through the Kansas Development Finance Authority. The debt would help fund an $85 million project at Kansas State to build a new indoor football practice facility and a new volleyball and Olympic sport training facility. It also would renovate the existing indoor football practice facility into a track venue.

• Authorized Emporia State University to ask the Kansas Legislature for up to $15 million in bond debt to help pay for a new home for Emporia State’s Department of Nursing and other student wellness activities.