LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. -- For some high school students in Lee's Summit, going to school doesn't mean going to their high school.

The district offers the Summit Technology Academy for students to spend half of their school day on focused study to further their education beyond their regular classrooms.

The academy is an environment of learning usually found on a college campus, officials said.

The majority of students are from Lee's Summit, but as a designated Center of Excellence, kids from 18 different school districts are eligible to attend.

Programs taught include engineering, pre-professional nursing, bio-medical science, pre-professional educator cadet, information technology, networking, digital media and international studies.

Kirt Mosier, recently voted Lee's Summit Teacher of the Year, is one of the educators in the program. "In our digital media program, we're actually producing film scores and short films and all the music that goes along with that. Our kids have won some national awards doing that," he said.

There will be about 330 students this year at Summit Tech. Of those, about eight out of 10 will go on to attend college, school officials said.