| Career and Technical Education facilities moved to campuses at OCCHS, SFHS | | Posted: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 9:53 pm
| By CHRIS MENEES
Staff Reporter
Some Obion County students are making a career out of high school.
Technically, it’s become even better for them with the opening of state-of-the-art Career and Technical Education facilities on the Obion County Central and South Fulton high school campuses.
The Obion County School System recently closed its vocational education satellite site in Union City’s industrial park — where students from both high schools were served — and moved its Career and Technical Education program to the two high school campuses.
“That was a good move for us,” countywide CTE director Russ Davis said. “Interest level has peaked. Student enrollment is rising.”
Classes began in the new facilities with the recent start of the 2011-12 school year.
Davis said the community can be proud of beautiful new training facilities which will provide a good foundation for students who choose to enter the workforce after high school.
“We need people who are going into the service industry and these kids are going to go to work right out of high school or they’re going to go to trade/vocational-technical school and then enter the workforce,” Davis said. “We’re kind of giving them the foundation training for that. We’re real proud of the new facility.”
Davis said the previous vocational school on North Fifth Street in Union City served its purpose well for many years, but he is extremely pleased to have new facilities which will offer expanded opportunities in a unique hands-on educational setting.
He also noted that equipment was continually updated over the years at the old vocational school, allowing students to use the same equipment they would encounter on an actual job.
“We liked the old facility and it served its purpose for 40-plus years,” he said. “(The new CTE program) gives the opportunity of getting something new. We’ve been given money from the school board and the director of schools for the past several years to update our equipment, so the kids who are in our classes and in our programs are actually using the type of equipment that they’re going to use when they enter the workforce. They’re not using stuff that’s 20 years old and then having to re-learn, so that’s something we’re proud of as well.”
Davis said any student at the county’s two high schools can take CTE courses and many students take multiple classes.
“Most CTE programs start with the 10th grade, but we have some ninth-graders taking health science, a big program, and family and consumer science. But, generally, it’s grades 10 through 12,” he said.
Enrollment numbers in the past have been about 1,400 students countywide — from both OCCHS and SFHS — taking at least one CTE class each year, he added.
OC’s offering
A CTE open house was held Monday evening at Obion County Central High School in Troy to highlight the course offering there. Instructors from agriculture, business technology, carpentry, auto body, cosmetology, family and consumer science, health science, welding and criminal justice were on hand to provide information and insight on their programs of study.
The impressive and expansive facility at OCCHS includes classroom labs where, for example, automotive repair students can use bays similar to those found in an auto repair shop or cosmetology students can create styles at stations similar to those in a beauty shop.
The hands-on instructions allows them to have actual customers as they learn their trades.
“Once our students are second- and third-year students, we actually encourage outside people to come in and receive services and that all counts toward (the students’) hours,” Davis said.
For example, auto repair students are capable of changing oil, rotating tires, doing alignments on updated alignment machines, doing paint jobs and making small or large repairs, while welding students are capable of actually building trailers and other things in their shop.
Students in the various courses of study have the ability to actually work together and create products or provide services that can be offered to the public.
Davis said school officials are working on the welding program becoming an industry-certification welding program next year “where everybody who graduates with three years of welding will have a welding certification.”
There are also plans for the automotive program to be NATEF — National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation — certified.
“That’s the big trend and the big push — for all the CTE programs to get an industry certification tied to them,” Davis explained.
SF’s studies
A second CTE open house is set for this coming Monday from 4:30-5:30 p.m. at South Fulton High School, where the school’s agriculture, business technology, family and consumer science and health science instructors will be in attendance to answer questions.
The facility at SFHS is similar to that at OCCHS but is considerably smaller for the school’s smaller campus. It has two new classroom lab combinations — one for enhanced business and computer offerings and one for a new health science program.
While the South Fulton facility does not have the many diverse course offerings such as construction or auto repair, the school does have an agriculture program which includes instruction in areas like small engine repair, carpentry skills and welding, according to Davis.
He said he anticipates some growth in South Fulton’s CTE program after this first year.
“Their numbers have been really encouraging for the first year,” he said. “We feel like next year it’s going to take off, so we’re very proud of it.”
Staff Reporter Chris Menees may be contacted by email at cmenees@ucmessenger.com.
Published in The Messenger 9.14.11 | | | | |
