School districts explore regional career academy

There?s a distinct difference in looking for a job and having a career focus, said Tom Rubel representing Indian Hills Community College at a meeting of regional school administrators Thursday.

?To get a job in advanced manufacturing for instance, takes education and training,? he said.

No one disagreed with him. Everyone at the table was there to discuss the feasibility of offering more career path education and training at the high school level, through a regional career academy.

Career academies in Iowa offer career preparatory programs in conjunction with a community college. Class offerings vary by region and facilities available. Students attend their own high school for half a day and the career academy for half a day. The academy classes are skills-based, hands-on and integrate academic and technical instruction. Students have an individualized career plan that brings parental involvement into the process and prepares students for entry and advancement in a high-skill and rewarding career field, according to information on the Iowa Department of Education website.

?This is something we?ve been discussing a few years,? said Art Sathoff, Fairfield school district superintendent.

Thursday was the second meeting in four weeks among administrators from Fairfield, Van Buren, Harmony and Cardinal school districts and Indian Hills. The first meeting was Oct. 11.

Local businesswoman, Lori Schaefer Weaton of Agri-Industrial Plastics, said schools are focused on preparing students for college, but not everyone will attend a four-year college.

?There?s a section of kids who need a path to a career, not a four-year college,? she said. ?We want to prepare them for jobs in our own backyard.?

Sathoff agreed, and asked everyone around the table to give feedback on the concept of creating and sharing a career academy. ?We offer a lot of college prep classes and feel we should offer more career exploration,? he said.

Dennis Phelps, superintendent of Harmony Community School District, said he?d like to get back to a hands-on curriculum.

?We can?t afford staff or curriculum for it in a district our size,? he said.

?We struggle with the same issues,? said Sara Swanson, guidance counselor at Cardinal. ?Our students don?t understand the job market either.?

She said Cardinal High School serves 350 students. About 20 percent go on to a four-year college and 50 percent to 60 percent attend Indian Hills Community College.

?We don?t have any data about who finishes with a degree,? she said.

Marci Dunlap, Fairfield district curriculum director, said a career academy could be an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty for some students.

To establish a career academy, a minimum of 40 students is needed to make it economically feasible, said Sathoff.

Some types of programs offered in Iowa school districts near larger cities won?t be feasible in Fairfield. Having a machining facility built for students would be cost-prohibitive, Sathoff said. He envisions career paths in health care, business, finance and industrial maintenance.

Sathoff had assigned ?homework? to school district participants last month to outline a ?desired reality? for a regional career academy.

?We need a well-defined curriculum about what we can offer and what we can?t offer,? Sathoff said, speaking about his own desired reality. ?And we need to work to get this set to open in fall of 2012.

Parents are part of the process, added Schaefer Weaton.

?We can tell parents, yes, the classes are hard but here?s why your student needs to enroll,? she said. ?We have buy-in from manufacturing companies to equip future workers with hard and soft skills.?

Dunlap said she has faith in the 21st Century Skills? required curriculum.

?Our kids get that,? [the need to be prepared with employability skills, and acquire financial, health, technology and civic literacy], said Dunlap. ?I?d like to see them certified.?

Career academy courses provide certification and students earn dual-credit high school and college credits. Some students could graduate high school with already having earned an associate?s degree.

Rubel said if schools don?t focus more on students not planning to attend a four-year college, districts ?will not turn the corner on this.?

Area businesses were surveyed in 2009 about worker needs, said Sathoff. Each district should look at its community and answer those needs.

?We should never assume those needs are still valid,? said Schaefer Weaton. ?The world isn?t the same as it was in 2009. We need to talk with CEOs and supervisors, find out current needs. Plus, you create buy-in to the program.?

She volunteered to help survey area businesses. But it was agreed to wait until all stakeholders at the table have talked with their school boards and high school teachers.

?My interest is strong, but I?ll have a heck of a sales job to get kids on buses and leave the district for classes,? said Phelps. ?I like the idea. I hope we?re a player; I don?t know how much of a player. And finances are a factor.?

Sara Swanson estimates eight to 10 students from Cardinal would attend.

Sathoff asked the other school district representatives to talk to their school boards and staff by mid-December.

Indian Hills representatives are scheduled to make a presentation at Fairfield?s school board meeting at 7 p.m. Nov. 21, in the high school commons.

The regional group of district educators scheduled their next meeting for 9 a.m. Dec. 20. Sathoff said the December agenda would include discussions about what classes to offer and where to site a career academy, and by Dec. 20, school boards and staff hopefully will have provided some feedback to report.