New CTE Director gives update to school board

Across the Mat-Su, Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses offered at the high schools has proven to be a very valuable option for the students who may be forgoing college, military, or further training schools when they graduate and want to jump straight into employment.

During the August 21 school board meeting of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District (MSBSD), Tyler Gilligan, the new (CTE) Director for the MSBSD, gave a brief report about CTE, first reporting on a recent Professional Development day that brought together CTE instructors from across the district.

A total of 42 CTE instructors, 39 in the high schools and three in middle schools, came together to collaborate during a Professional Development day held on August 11.

“Giving them the opportunity to collaborate with instructors to teach the same content like automotive or welding in super valuable,” reported Gilligan.

He said that industry professionals also attended, allowing them to work with the teachers to ensure the CTE programs offered throughout the district were meeting the needs of the communities.

“It was a really beneficial day,” said Gilligan, who added that the feedback was encouraging and that many would like to return in the future, and participate in the school CTE programs in a more robust way.

Gilligan also spoke about the CTE courses at the new Mat-Su Hybrid Academy that will be rolling out soon.

“This is going to be based off student interest,” he said, telling the school board that his department surveyed CTE instructors across the district, and with the new Mat-Su Hybrid Learning Academy (MSHLA), classes will be offered at host sites, citing as an example the Welding classes offered at Colony High School, saying that students at the MSHLA would be able to attend Welding courses at Colony High.

“We’re looking at a variety of different courses across our district at different sites. Once we get enough students to show us that interest, then we’ll offer those programs. The goal is to increase homeschool students in our MSBSD CTE courses and bring them back into our home program.”

Gilligan reported that district-wide, enrollment in the CTE programs is up.

“As of last Friday, we had 368 district-wide enrollments for this fall, which is a fantastic number.”

Some of the dozens of CTE programs offered include Private Pilot Ground School, Wildland Firefighting, Welding, Dental Assisting, and CISCO Networking. “If you look at some of those courses, they’re very applicable to our local and state needs.”

Students also have the opportunity to enroll in dual-enrollment CTE courses that allow students to receive high school and college credit at the same time, through articulation at Mat-Su College, or the University of Alaska system, though students do not have to get college credit in order to sign up for the classes.

“For this fall, we have 639 potential dual enrollments,” he told the school board. Some of the dual enrollment courses include CAN, Auto Tech, and Educational Development and Psychology.

For years, MSBSD Superintendent Dr. Randy Trani has praised the CTE programs offered in the district, pointing to the increase in graduation rate for CTE concentrator students at 98% while students who participate in CTE classes have also seen a 12% rise in their graduation rates.

Visitors to the Alaska State Fair will have an opportunity to see what the district CTE programs have to offer on Friday, August 29, as different displays of programs and information will be available at the new multiuse building on the fairgrounds.

To learn more about the CTE programs, please visit www.cte.matsuk12.us