Students in Wayne and Pike counties may soon have more opportunities for career and technical education.
Leaders of the four school districts in those counties want to establish a center where students can learn trades and experience hands-on learning.
Pike and Wayne counties are the only ones in Pennsylvania without a career and technical education center, according to Wallenpaupack Area Superintendent Keith Gunuskey. Wallenpaupack on Tuesday hosted officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Education and community leaders, who support the districts’ efforts.
The four districts — Delaware Valley, Wallenpaupack Area, Wayne Highlands and Western Wayne — offer some programs within their own high schools. Working together, they could offer more.
“I think it would be more advantageous on a more global level, to have it be at a central location to expand on the programs, to expand on the possibilities,” said Gregory Frigoletto, Wayne Highlands superintendent.
Beyond that, the leaders said a center can benefit the community. Adult education can happen in the evenings or on the weekends, and the center can respond directly to the needs of the region’s workforce.
Nationwide, interest in the trades has grown in recent years, as students become more aware of college debt and the great demand for a skilled workforce. Pennsylvania's budget this year included a $30 million increase to expand access to career and technical education statewide. Many students in CTC programs receive certifications for employment after graduation, and many also pursue post-secondary education.
The districts originally petitioned the state in 1970 and received approval for a Wayne/Pike CTC. Planning meetings have happened periodically over the past 20 years. The districts have now increased efforts and a feasibility study is underway.
“We want to finish the job and unlock our future. And it's not just the future of our students, but it's the future of our region, of our businesses and economic development,” Gunuskey said. “This is something that really transcends beyond the school districts.”
The districts plan for a main campus in a central location in Palmyra Twp., near Wallenpaupack’s middle school, across Route 6 from the high school. The estimated cost for building a 70,000-square-foot center is $40 million. Two satellite campuses are also possible, and the districts would form a joint operating committee to govern the CTC.
Tuesday’s event at Wallenpaupack included tours of the district’s career and technical education programs, housed within the high school. Students baked cookies in the culinary kitchen. In protective services, students practiced rescuing their peers who wore full firefighting turnout gear. Students in the aviation program learned in simulators. In the automotive and building trades classrooms, tools buzzed as students received hands-on practice.
In the childcare classroom, preschool-aged children worked one-on-one with the high school students. Junior Jewel Dickerman said the experience has been invaluable. She now wants to be a school psychologist and says with more space, more students — preschool and high school — could be positively impacted.
“It can be very crowded in here … learning that an area that’s so big could be built would be amazing, and it would also open opportunities for having more kids around,” Jewel said.
Mark Watson has taught Wallenpaupack’s automotive program for 34 years. While students have achieved great success in the program and found jobs out of high school, Watson thinks about what a bigger program could help accomplish — for students from all four districts.
“A new center would be great … it would be great for all the students to have that opportunity to go through it,” he said.
