Brookfield Local School District does not provide career technical education to middle school students and has again asked the Ohio Department of Education for a waiver from the requirement that it offer it to students in grades seven and eight.
“Being that we are a heavy blue-collar community, wouldn’t that be worth some technical opportunities for some of these youngsters who are not college-bound?” school board member George Economides asked July 16. “That’s missing out on a big opportunity, I think, for some youngsters.”
School administrators agreed but said roadblocks to creating such a program include cost and staffing.
High school students have access to a career technical education through Trumbull Career and Technical Center.
A career technical education program goes beyond wood and metal shop, officials said. The ODE web site said a career technical program could touch on anything from agriculture and the environment, government and health science to the arts, business services and hospitality.
Superintendent Velina Jo Taylor, presiding at her final meeting before she took over as superintendent at Lakeview schools, said the district has no one on staff licensed to teach career technical education. The district would have to hire someone with that credential as a full-time teacher.
“Unfortunately, this district’s hands have been tied as far as adding staff,” Taylor said. “We can’t add another teacher, and the teachers that we have currently don’t have the ability to teach (career technical education), nor do they have the time in the schedule. It would require that we find a way to fund an additional teacher.”
New middle school Principal Craig Boles is coming from Crestwood schools, where career technical education was offered, and is “very enthusiastic about it,” she said.
Boles and new Superintendent Toby Gibson, who took over Aug. 1, have talked about the program and will continue to do so, she said.
“A lot of our kids would really benefit from it, there is no doubt in my mind,” Taylor said.
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