Edison talks future plans for students
RICHMOND — Edison Local Schools is gathering information to prepare students for the future and officials discussed the next step during the Dec. 18 school board meeting.
This year, Edison High School began collaborating with Future Plans-Growing Rural Independence Together Project, an initiative which serves 32 Appalachian counties and provides resources to assist schools in developing career-ready students upon graduation. The initiative provides assessments and one-on-one coaching and counseling with representatives to help pupils create a customized pathway as they navigate their life course. A plan is developed to enroll in work skills training, then helps identify jobs, either in person or working from home.
Assistant Superintendent Julie Kireta said the program currently involves 300 EHS students in grades 10-12 but will primarily focus on sophomores in the future. Kireta said data was recently collected from a career assessment of students to determine abilities and interests in a wide array of professions and results were based on the three classes’ interest profiles.
“They met virtually with coaches for the results and picked two or three areas of interest and discussed what post-secondary education they need,” she said.
She noted that architecture and construction were among the top choices but officials learned that some careers may require further clarification.
“We want to focus on in-demand jobs, look at abilities and match them,” she said. “One is first line supervisors of construction trades. Not many kids were interested and they may not know what it does. Our kids have higher abilities and we want to explain what (the job) is.”
She cited the construction supervisor post, saying there were 122 ability matches with 21 students being interested. Another was wind turbine service technicians found in the manufacturing field, which noted 119 ability matches with 15 students interested; a third was computer user support specialists, which showed 114 ability matches with only five being interested. With the information gathered, the next goal was to get parents of juniors and seniors involved.
“(District Career Pathways Coach Leah Eft) will go into the English classrooms and talk with the students, then we’ll send information home to the parents,” Kireta said.
An all-call will inform parents of a questionnaire designed to engage them with the student to help learn what careers they are interested in so they can prepare for necessary skills training or schooling the job would entail.
“Hopefully they will engage and talk to the kids,” Kireta added. “I think [the test] was a really good resource for parents to have that conversation, and I hope we get a conversation started. We can use this towards work-based learning and it can count as job exploration.”
She said the careers were based upon in-demand jobs within the area and what students wanted to do, while Future Plans would have representatives explain the various job duties.
“We are educating for everybody,” Kireta said. “It’s not just career-tech; it’s for everybody.”
“It looks like we’re going to identify gaps to create job knowledge,” said board member Matt Bordash. “We need to ask questions to those people to use as a framework.”
Board member Ron Smyth also asked if all students could take the military ASVAB aptitude test and Kireta said that was permitted.
In personnel matters, the board employed Mara Eisnaugle as a long-term substitute teacher at John Gregg Elementary, accepted the resignation of EHS custodian Robert Moody effective Dec. 11 and hired Christine Springer as custodian effective Monday. Moody and Phillip Spears were then hired as substitute bus drivers. Certified substitute contracts were awarded to teachers Louis O’Bradovich, Lois D’Alesio, Megan Gibbons and Emmy Buck while supplemental contracts were given to Jessica McCallister as sophomore class adviser and Anthony Pierro as head varsity football coach.
In other matters:
• Superintendent Bill Beattie updated the board on the free breakfast and lunch program, saying a review was completed and the district was recommended to remain in the Provision 2 program;
• The board discussed purchasing new cafeteria tables at EHS and were reviewing three bids along with drawings;
• Officials approved the treasurer’s report, which showed a November cash summary of $24,274,007.94 and more than $2.9 million in expenditures. Treasurer Amanda Gump also noted that a $6,906 donation was made anonymously for Stanton hoodies while Kroger donated more than $88 for Stanton lunches;
• Beattie discussed an administration interest survey which was provided to staff to determine participation in the Aspiring Administration Academy for further professional development;
• The board discussed setting a planning meeting and will finalize a date at the regular January board session;
• Officials set the organization meeting for 5:45 p.m. Jan. 8 at the Edison Fieldhouse with current board President Aaron Richardson serving as president pro tempore and the regular session will begin at 6 p.m.