A call for School Board retreat to focus on ‘re-imaging’ district
June 25 and 26, the Leon County School Board will convene a Strategic Planning Retreat. It is my focus to include discussions about the “re-imaging” of our school district to respond to critical issues of concerns and challenges in our community. At the crux of these discussions will be a conversation on remedying poverty, teenage gun violence, and identifying pathways to help end the workforce crisis in healthcare and construction trades through the educational offerings of the Leon County School District.
In September 2019, I joined the Big Bend Minority Chamber of Commerce’s founder, attorney Sean Pittman, and president, Antonio Jefferson, on a fact-finding visit to Nashville, Tennessee, to see how the school district had responded to the workforce crisis in their community. Attendees discovered that the Nashville School District had high schools that were devoted to career and technical education for targeted industries. Existing high school sites were redesigned to provide on-site instruction in specifically designed classrooms for healthcare, construction trades, computer technology, and other professions. Importantly, those high schools accomplished this focus while still providing traditional instruction.
Enrollees in those high schools were earning certifiable instruction in these targeted industries and graduating with diplomas and certificates. Nashville businesses contributed both financial resources and externships for the enrollees guaranteeing a competent and experienced workforce to serve the Nashville and regional business community. The return on the investment by both the school district and the business community was immeasurable.
Presently, Lively Technical College Director Shelly Bell is already providing pathways for students to careers through her programs as early as elementary school. District magnet programs at a variety of schools are also doing the same. Continuing engagement throughout a student’s public-school career can promote these “pathways to careers” for students who may have lost interest in traditional instruction or just have different interests than a college education. Highlighting these careers can plant seeds that can be cultivated by career counselors—an investment by the district no different than traditional guidance counselors. GED students also would benefit from these pathways.
Our district must work to supply and support other successful local initiatives such as Sheriff Walt McNeil and his 1,000 jobs initiative, Dr. Kimball Thomas and the City of Tallahassee TEMPO program, Leon County’s Leon Works Apprenticeship program and the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce’s TalentHub — all working to place young talent in jobs. The Office of Economic Vitality is also incentivizing apprenticeships and externships in its supplier diversity evaluations of business respondents to RFPs and bids.
The School District must rise to the occasion and harness the human capital found in our district and our business community to intentionally promote career and technical education to remedy some of our community’s challenges. Through re-imagined pedagogy and the dedication of facilities and District resources, Leon County Schools can create purposeful pathways to careers that our students need and our local economy desperately requires. And the School District can continue to do what it does best — teach and with measurable outcomes.
The business community, our students, our families, our local economy are all looking to the school district to lead from the front. The Leon County School Board must re-imagine our role in our local economy and in workforce development. We just have to have the political appetite to start the conversation.
Darryl Jones is vice chair of the Leon County School Board, District.
