Schools

Give kids skills, board is told

Employers and educators say the county needsto put more into vocational technical education.

By TOM MARSHALL, Times Staff Writer
Published October 17, 2007

Thomas Luehl works on a circuit at Nature Coast High. Some say the vocational technical school has strayed from its mission.
	[Ron Thompson | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT Hernando County Schools chief Wayne Alexander sees value in vocational education.

BROOKSVILLE - There's plenty of work out there for high school graduates who know how to wire a house, run a machine or build a solid wall.

But employers can't always find such workers, and students who want to learn such skills at school aren't always getting the chance, members of the Hernando County School Board learned Tuesday.

"It's a skill you can make a pretty good living at and raise a family," said superintendent Wayne Alexander. "We need to catch that layer of kids. There's a whole group of kids I think we need to capture in the vocational programs."

With board approval, that will begin to change by next fall.

Nature Coast Technical High School may soon add new programs in electrical trades and heating, ventilation and air conditioning, said principal Margaret "Tizzy" Schoelles.

Neither are considered high-skill, high-wage jobs at the top of the state's priority list, she said. And Schoelles told the board her existing programs in allied health, engineering, and other career tracks were filling a vital need.

But visiting trade professionals told the board there's a keen demand for more skilled workers.

"We want them," said Frank Cardinal, vice president for Skanska USA Construction of Tampa. "There's not enough masons for all the work is going on. Not enough masons, not enough bricklayers, not enough carpenters."

He urged the district to offer more such courses, and not to skimp on the academics. "Everything depends on geometry and trigonometry," Cardinal said.

The discussion followed complaints by several board members that Nature Coast, initially supported by voters in 1998 as a vocational technical high school, had strayed from its mission and now resembles a comprehensive high school more than a trade school.

"I think a splendid job is being done," said board member Jim Malcolm. "But I think the public is expecting so much more."

Part of the confusion comes from the state's new mandate that each high school have career academies offering relevant, job-based programs.

But board member Sandra Nicholson said such directions shouldn't be taken as a signal to eliminate specialized schools.

"I understand some of these things aren't on the state list, but it's what we need," she added. "We've got employers out there begging for people who have a little bit of knowledge."

The board agreed to reconvene a board task force of local businessmen, economic development specialists and other community members to plan the county's future vocational education offerings.

Tom Marshall can be reached at tmarshall@sptimes.com or 352 848-1431.

[Last modified October 16, 2007, 21:37:04]