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Officials say all can benefit from vocational school education

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By Lindsey Hilty, Staff Writer 8:15 PM Monday, November 30, 2009

Butler Tech is working to shake off the image that its students must “work with their hands” to be successful, and that it’s a place for non-college-bound students.

Board President Katie McNeil from Middletown said districts now realize all students need hard and soft skills to be successful, whether offered by career technical or traditional schools.

The key to ensuring success, she said, is a collaboration of programs and resources to engage students and help them transition to college, whether that is at a university, a police and fire academy or just a path of continued learning.

“Keeping our mission really simple and being about collaboration and not competition is very intentional,” she said. “Again, our mission is for career and technical education.”

Career technical schools originally formed with workforce development programs, such as agricultural, health and communications programs, Butler Tech CEO Bob Sommers said.

“College attendance rates for career-technical students have always been very comparable to the overall population,” he said.

But now, state requirements demand a labor force prepared with college pathways for high skill, high wage and high demand jobs by 2013. Without both academic and technical talents, students will find it difficult to earn a living and support their families, Sommers said.

The rules for career technical schools first were established in 1963, requiring districts to provide access to at least 12 career technical programs with at least 20 classes within those programs.

Districts were given three options: to offer their own program, a move Hamilton City Schools decided to make; form a consortium to share responsibilities; or to create an independent joint vocational school district that would be viewed and funded by the state as a separate entity with the same standing as a school district, able to levy taxes, form a board and hire a superintendent.

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