Moving Forward

The two career and technical education schools in the St. Landry Parish School System won’t see their enrollment affected this year by the state’s new Jump Start program to provide career courses to high school students, but they are already feeling its effects in additional resources and a bit of a boost in their budget.

Jump Start is a new pathway to a career diploma, according to Dr. Tracey Beard, principal at the Washington Career and Technical Center. Students who were freshmen last year had the opportunity to select between a course of study aimed toward continuing to college or to one that State Board of Education president Chas Roemer says “gives more students the opportunity to achieve real career success” and that recognizes the needs of Louisiana industry.

According to a February 2014 report by the state board only 28 percent of Louisiana high school students get a four-year or two-year college degree. Of the remaining 72 percent, some do not finish high school, some finish but do not go to college at all, and some attend college only for a short time, ending up without a degree or other credential.

The Washington campus and the Eunice Career and Technical Center, where Christina Joubert is principal, are designed to meet the needs of students who are not college-bound, and, Beard says, have been able to use Jump Start money to improve their classes.

“The state is putting up extra dollars for machinery and materials that will give students what they need for industry board certification,” she said. “Even though we don’t get these students until they are juniors and seniors, we’ve already been able to get some extra money for our welding, air conditioning and refrigeration, carpentry, nursing, and Prostart culinary programs.”

The Washington campus trains high school students 16 and older in welding, culinary skills, cosmetology, nursing assistance, offshore safety, air conditioning and refrigeration, and carpentry, as well as math, language, and people skills.

Welding instructor Charles Briley said Jump Start money allowed him to get new welding machines and expand the class size in a course that is full every year.

“That course is always full because the students associate welding with the chance to make money,” Beard said. She said that each of the courses at the career schools is designed to provide students with the certification they need to go to work in their chosen field or to go on to further education at a community college.

“Some of our certified welding students get jobs right out of school that pay more than I make,” the principal said.

In the past, she said, “parents who want their kids to go to college have been afraid they won’t be able to go to college if they take the career path. But, when they graduate here, they will be fully eligible for enrollment in a two-year community college from which they can go on and pursue a university degree.”

“Our goal is to get you ready to have a job that you can use to work your way through college or that you can turn into a career,” Beard said. “A diploma opens so many doors and if you can get specific job skills, that opens even more doors.”

The career campus administrators say they will not know the full impact of the Jump Start program “until last year’s freshmen reach us as juniors next year,” in Beard’s words. She does anticipate a bigger enrollment and hopes she will be able “to add back some courses such as auto mechanics that we haven’t been able to offer for the last several years.”

“Our goal is to teach students and give them a head start on a career path in which they can make a living and lead happy and productive lives,” Beard said. “If the students are successful, we’re successful.”