Devyn Brown likes biology, but she’s “not so big on chemistry.” The Washington High School senior knows she’ll need to learn both if she’s to become a registered nurse.
Dylan Miller, also a senior at Washington, was torn between a future as a paramedic or a physical therapist – until he learned that the latter can make more money.
And Courissa Rusk thought she wanted to be a nurse, but now the Orting High School senior has started thinking about a career in physical therapy.
All three Pierce County high school students got a jump start on careers in the medical field in a class this summer at Graham-Kapowsin High School. It was just a prelude to the career offerings that the Pierce County Skills Center will offer in the upcoming school year.
The new center – a cooperative venture involving 10 Pierce County school districts – focuses on preparing high school students for the world of work and for higher education in their chosen field. The center offered a series of classes at high schools around Pierce County over the summer, but its formal launch will come with the opening of the 2010-11 school year.
A 27,000-square-foot classroom building, located near the intersection of Canyon Road and 160th Street East in Frederickson, is on track to open to students Sept. 8, say officials in the Bethel School District, the lead sponsor of the skills center.
Construction began in February on the new classroom building, and more space will be added as funding becomes available.
The new building is located on the same site as an old Safeway store; a portion of the building was remodeled already, but plans call for a major overhaul to add instructional space. That expansion is yet to be funded.
10 DISTRICTS
High school juniors and seniors will ride buses from their home high schools to the skills center. They’ll spend roughly half their school day there and the other half at their high school.
The center will serve students in a 10-district consortium in Pierce County. Participants are Bethel, Tacoma, Franklin Pierce, Sumner, Fife, Steilacoom, Eatonville, White River, University Place and Orting.
The center also will partner with community and technical colleges to offer college credit for some courses.
Jake Jackson took on the job of director of the Pierce County Skills Center – the 13th such center in the state – over the summer. He previously ran a similar center in Port Angeles, and he’s a believer in the concept.
“Most high schools offer exploratory classes,” he said. “We offer more preparatory classes. We spend more time in the curriculum, and the curriculum is more hands-on.”
AVOIDING CUTS
Skills centers can offer advantages over traditional high school career and technical education classes, he said.
They can provide programs that many high schools couldn’t afford alone. Jackson said he doesn’t believe high schools are backing away from vocational education. But he does say that the nature of those courses might have changed over time because of the expense sometimes required.
Automotive repair is an example of a once-standard technical class that’s no longer offered at some smaller schools.
“The whole purpose of the skills center is to bring those high-cost programs to one area,” he said.
Plans call for adding automotive courses to the Pierce County Skills Center at some point, if funding for a second phase is approved.
TIME FOR PROGRESS
Skills center programs can also teach in-depth. Jackson points to the local center’s marine technology program, which will teach students to work on boat engines and technology.
“In a traditional high school, you have an hour,” he said. “At the skills center, you have a two-and-a-half-hour block. That’s time to get (the engine) out, work on it and see some progress.”
The longer class time also means students can gain academic, as well as elective, credits and can meet their core graduation requirements while learning a trade.
This fall, planned offerings at the Pierce County Skills Center include video game design, environmental science, criminal justice, computer networking and hardware repair, robotics and medical careers. There also will be preparatory programs for students interested in becoming veterinary assistants or physical therapy and sports medicine assistants.
The center hopes to add career classes in aerospace, welding and more.
Satellite campuses this year will offer additional classes: marine technology at Foss High School in Tacoma, and fire science and emergency services at Bethel’s Spanaway Lake High School.
The computer networking class gives students a credit in math as well as elective credits. The marine technology class offers credits in both science and an elective credit. The criminal justice class carries social studies and physical education credits, as well as elective credit.
“We are being more intentional about teaching the academic content as well,” Jackson said. “We are trying to help students graduate on time.”
2006 BOND
The birth of the skills center was a long process, full of false starts and stops.
It began in 2006, when Bethel voters approved bond money for a vocational-technical high school just for Bethel students.
District Superintendent Tom Seigel thought the idea could grow into something more.
“I was new to the state, and I started to read up on skills centers,” he said.
He learned that building a regional center serving multiple school districts could bring added state dollars.
So far, the state has approved $10 million in construction costs for the new center.
And each student who’s also enrolled full-time in his or her home high school brings in an estimated $3,900 extra in state per-pupil funding.
Bethel spent more than $9 million to purchase the current 8-acre property – but only after the original site chosen in the Frederickson industrial area was opposed by then-Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg. In December 2006, he vetoed a zoning change that would have allowed the center, saying the land should remain in industrial use.
Skills center backers evaluated more than 100 sites before settling on the current one. When the Bethel School Board and the property owner couldn’t agree on a price, the board voted to condemn it.
Then this year, the project was temporarily endangered by state budget cuts, which would have eliminated $1.5 million for equipping the new $8.5 million building. The money was preserved in the end.
READY FOR WORK, MORE EDUCATION
Skills center students can earn industry certifications and licenses, including those needed for careers as computer networkers, nursing assistants or emergency medical technicians.
Jackson, the center’s director, said he wants to overcome the perception that career and technical education represents the “end of the line” in a student’s learning.
“We are giving them the training to go into an entry-level job,” he said. “But all these careers have post-secondary links, so that they can go on to technical schools, community colleges or a four-year college.”
Seigel believes the skills center will appeal to borderline dropout students who might be turned off by traditional school, as well as those who want to explore career options in-depth.
“It’s the power of taking abstract stuff and applying it,” he said. “It’s learning the importance of mathematics, and how it applies to horsepower and torque. It’s the importance of being able to read well, so that kids can see the (real world) connection.”
Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635
debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com
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