District 6 is building a 52,000-square-foot campus for the center and the new Jefferson High School at the intersection of 14th Avenue and 2nd Street. The project is part of the district's $395 million bond package approved by voters in 2019 and the cost is estimated at $22 million.
The center will be the home for students' training and study in five pathways: construction-electrical, welding, cosmetology, education and information technology-cybersecurity. The education pathway includes the district's teacher cadet program and early education. The students will be eligible to earn post-secondary credits and industry certificates from these courses and programs.
The student enrollment number was reported to the District 6 board of education by the Director of Career and Technical Education Jennie Schilling. Schilling and career pathway specialist Jordan Karlberg updated the board of education on the progress of the center Monday evening at the board's regular business meeting.
The CTE Center and Jefferson High are on track to open for the start of the 2023-24 school year in August.
Students will attend their home high schools for one-half of the day and the CTE Center for the other half of the day. The students' work at the CTE Center will yield approximately 273 hours per semester. This translates to the students earning four credits — two electives and two core — per school year.
District 6 Chief of Communications Theresa Myers said all of the CTE Center programs filled up and have waiting lists except the education pathway. The teacher cadet program was previously located at Northridge and Greeley Central high schools, Myers said.
"We were pleased as a district that we had as many kids in the programs," Myers added.
Earlier this year, the district board of education approved the name of the center as the District 6 Career and Technical Education Center.
Schilling told the board the CTE Center is fully staffed and the new educators are endorsed within their content area and they have industry experience.
The center teaching staff are:
- Lauren Appelhans, education;
- Joe Baffoe, IT cybersecurity;
- Matt Weber, construction/electrical construction;
- Kathleen German, construction/electrical construction (2 days/week);
- Josh Lanning, welding; and Julie Rhine, cosmetology.
Four of the five pathways will offer morning and afternoon sessions with the exception of the education pathway. The education pathway will only be offered in the morning because Appelhans also teaches at Greeley Central, Schilling told the board.
Karlberg said curriculum and classroom materials align with state and industry standards, and those are being ordered.
The district has applied for post-secondary credentials to allow concurrent enrollment to be embedded within each pathway. District 6 high school students have the option to take college courses to earn both high school and college credit.
For cosmetology, concurrent enrollment would be with Northeastern Junior College in Sterling. In education, concurrent enrollment would be with Aims Community College and the University of Northern Colorado; for IT cybersecurity, construction-electrical and weld pathways, concurrent enrollment is with Aims.
Schilling and Karlberg also told the board about a CTE Mobile Lab affiliated with the CTE Center.
The mobile lab is a 24-foot box truck which will contain tools and equipment, allowing for transport to other schools. The goal with the mobile lab is to expose students at lower grades to CTE pathways through hands-on activities, Schilling said.
Karlberg told the board the idea for the mobile lab came from an advisory group meeting, during which the discussion came around to the importance of presenting career and technical education to students before high school.
Karlberg said seventh through ninth graders will have the chance to acquaint themselves with skills in manufacturing, agriculture, construction, health sciences, hospitality and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) areas.
He also said mobile lab lessons will be developed this fall and the lab will be available for check out by school principals. The high school students in the district's CTE Center will be involved with workshops at middle schools and during summer programs.
©2023 the Greeley Tribune (Greeley, Colo.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
