Monday, March 18, 2024

School District CTE program gives students real world experience

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Kirk Sunitsch heads up the CTE program at the Icicle River Middle School and Cascade High School. Previously called Vocational Education, CTE stands for career and technical education. 

Sunitsch gave a presentation to the Cascade School Board at their May 23 meeting. 

“The purpose of CTE is to provide diverse, relevant learning opportunities for students that prepare them for career and post secondary options,” Sunitsch said. 

Each year, the CTE program receives a $14,000 Perkins grant, which compels the program to keep data students. Sunitsch explained they input data into what they call a completer, which is a CTE student that completes 360 hours in a single pathway. 

For example, if a student did Computer Science 1 and 2, they would be a completer. 

“CTE completers graduate just above 91 percent. That’s kids that go through and take 360 hours of a single program of study. The compares to the graduation rate of the state, which is about 77 percent,” Sunitsch said. “That is a big statistic that we see for kids that go through our program and around the state.”

Programs of study in the CTE program include business and marketing, information technology, early childhood education, hospitality/tourism, computer science, fire science/wildland fire, visual arts and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math.)

Some of the classes are moving forward, he said, into AP (advanced placement) courses, like computer science. There are certain requirement for CTE courses, Sunitsch said. 

“This is what we get audited on, for enhanced funding above and beyond general education to provide hands on opportunities for students,” he said. “One of things you have to have is a state approved framework. It has all the state standards in there, math, science, English, technology. They also have industry standards. We also add those into the frameworks, along with leadership, which ties it activities outside the classroom, like field trips, internships, competitions.”

Sunitsch said there are two types of certified CTE instructors. 

“Type 1 is where you come from industry and use your experience, then go through a program to get the teaching part of it. Then, have 6,000 hours of teaching experience or work experience and you are certified,” Sunitsch said. “A lot of our teachers are coming in right now directly from industry, which is awesome. A lot of our college programs can’t give them as much, especially in the computer science and engineering. Those come directly from industry. It’s different that general ed.”

Sunitsch said they also must have leadership component attached to the courses, such as DECA. Each class has to show activities that they can take to a competition or attach to leadership. A skills gap analysis is also needed. 

You have to prove the new classes serve a state or local need. 

“You have find the statistics and it is part of getting the frameworks approved. We also have a community advisory board that oversees each of those programs of study,” Sunitsch said. “We have to have certain things approved, all those minutes and notes for auditors to go through. They take a lool at what we do and give us some great ideas.”

Each one of the CTE programs has to have a three year plan, he said. These plans are looked at by the advisory board. If there is a new class, it has be approved by the advisory board. 

Board member Kristen Wood asked what a community advisory board looks like. 

“The ultimate purpose and intention of these advisory boards is make sure our CTE classes and relevant to current industry standards and needs. That’s one of the items I was tasked with when I started here,” said CTE instructor James Graham. “I formed a committee of industry professionals. My advisors are an architect, mechanical engineer, industrial designer, project manager, general contractor. My class is in structure, plans and pathways. It insures relevancy.”

The advisory board meetings are required each year, plus one general meeting which includes all the advisory boards. 

“It’s a great way to get input as to the relevance to industry standards, so we are teaching our kids what they see in industry,” Sunitsch said. “We have a business and marketing advisory committee. The fire science acts as their own advisory.”

Some of the courses planned for next year include engineering 1 and 2, renewable energy technology, and pre-engineering. There’s another class, taught by Dane Lewman, where a Microsoft or Google engineering teaches a class via Skype. 

There is culinary 1 and 2. A class on robotics and drones is new. Sunitsch said that will be one of their pathway courses taught seventh through 12th grade. 

“The leadership component...we have DECA, which took over for FBLA (future business leaders of America.) We took six kids to Nationals this year. TSA (technology student association) is a new program linked to our seventh and eighth grade programs. We have three kids going to Nationals in June,” Sunitsch said. “We’re looking to expand that. TSA can start in the middle school and move to the high school. FFA (future farmers of America,) we’re looking at changing. Because facilities, we have no greenhouse or barn. We’re going to move toward Skills USA.”

There are a lot of program linked to SkillsUSA, a student, teacher, industry partnership, he said, covering competition for CTE courses. 

“One thing we are going to talk to advisory boards about is using SkillsUSA to cover FFA and FCLA. As a district, for the kids that just go back from state, we’re going to support them at the Chelan County Fair in September,” he said. “We’re going to move toward SkillsUSA. We’ve heard some good things. We’re going to send all our teachers to training. There’s fire science competitions, culinary competitions, artistic competitions.”

Wood asked whether smalls schools, like Cascade, were getting away from ag. Sunitsch said it depends on the facilities. Cashmere does a great job with it, but Cascade doesn’t have greenhouse. 

“If you have a landscaping class or horticulture class. One of the things is it has to be hands on. If you don’t have a greenhouse, it’s hard to have that,” Sunitsch said. “It comes down to the amount of faculty that we have. With CTE, you want to look at high demand, high wage jobs, with engineering, CAD, with STEM. Another thing you look it is the funding with grants, especially for computer science and engineering.”

Sunitsch said he is talking to the advisory boards to see where they are going with that. 

“For me, as CTE director, to say this class is taught and tied to this competition, which I have to prove to auditors. SkillsUSA covers a much bigger gamut,” Sunitsch said. “We’re going to try it next year. With our facilities, we just aren’t there yet. As we move forward, maybe we can put in a greenhouse. We’re going to look at it for other classes.”

Superintendent Bill Motsenbocker said Wellness Committee member Danielle Gibbs is raising money for a greenhouse. Motsenbocker said she’s expressed an interest in running it. 

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.

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