Several years ago, Nick Saak was a student at Jonesburg Elementary School.

Now, the Montgomery County senior is back at the school tutoring kindergarten students as part of the high school’s A+ program.

“I have a lot of fun coming here every day,” Saak said. “This is where I went to school, so I enjoyed coming back and working with the kids and helping them.”

MCHS’ A+ program helps high school students prepare for the future. The program has high school students tutor children in the elementary schools in the R-II School District. There are also high school students who are cadet teachers, who work up to 90 minutes daily in a classroom, observing, tutoring and leading lessons.

The program allows students the opportunity to receive two years of free tuition and general fees from any Missouri college. To be eligible for the funds, high school students have to graduate with a 2.5 grade point average, have a 95 percent attendance rate and complete 50 tutoring or mentoring hours.

“This is a class that students can have on their schedule,” said Keri Poehlman, MCHS counselor and one of the A+ program supervisors. “They don’t earn credit as a class, but it’s a time where they can go to other buildings, so they go to Montgomery City Elementary or Montgomery County Middle School. Jonesburg Elementary is a possibility sometimes if they live out that way. They are there to complete their tutoring and mentoring requirements under the A+ program.”

MCHS family and consumer science teacher Beth Beattie supervises the cadet teaching program, which is called Teach and Train. She has 11 students in her program.

“We’re in a real life teaching shortage, so the relevancy for this program is huge,” Beattie said. “I need my kids to get to work in teachers’ classrooms who are excited about teaching and make them excited about it and show them how fun and how rewarding it is to be in a classroom so we’ll have more people who decide to go into the teaching profession. That’s my goal.”

Saak said after four months, he enjoys being part of the A+ program. He tutors the kindergarten students at Jonesburg Elementary for an hour every morning before he heads to the high school.

“I think it’s great,” Saak said. “I think you get the experience like this on top of it and it will pay for your school if you decide to go that route. I think it’s awesome. It helps everybody out. It gives you the experience like I’m getting. I think it’s a good thing all around.”

Poehlman said she has been getting positive feedback on Saak.

“His teacher and principal have called me and said that he has really been so helpful and the kids love him,” she said. “When I talk to Nick, he just lights up. He’s learning so much working with the little guys. It’s not that he’s not planning on being a teacher. It’s just a great experience that has helped him as a growing adult.”

Another MCHS senior, Hailie Dixon, is also part of the A+ program as she teaches Montgomery County Middle School students how to sing.

“I really do like it,” said Dixon, who is a member of the MCHS Honors Choir. “I love working with the kids and I love how involved they are with the music program. I think the music program is good for the school.”

Dixon, who plans to attend St. Charles Community College and become a teacher in the future, said the A+ program is beneficial to all high school students.

“I think everyone should take the opportunity to do it if you qualify,” Dixon said.