The Killeen School Board approved new STEM programs for all four high schools Tuesday evening.

The STEM programs represent an expansion of the partnership KISD already has with Central Texas College.

Students are already able to earn both high school and college credit through their dual enrollment program.

Shoemaker High School already has a similar program in place, but KISD hopes the new agreement will able to help close to 1,000 students from all four high school.

The programs would be open to ninth- through 12th-grade students.

Students who participate in the STEM programs will be able to take college courses and earn up to 63 credits.

Superintendent Dr. John Craft says the new program would be adding the 12 different programs to the four high schools' curriculum and will give the students more opportunities to earn credits.

He also says it will be helping a lot of Killeen families when it comes to college tuition cost.

"This is just an expansion of those opportunities and providing those choices to the numerous students that we have the opportunity to serve," Craft said.

"That's a tremendous benefit to so many of our families because in essence that would be college tuition cost that would be in essence deferred or paid by the school district," Craft said.

The district says there is already a waiting list with more than 800 students wanting to enroll.

KISD's the superintendent says they hope to start taking applications in the next couple of weeks and look forward to starting the program next year.