Prep PHS students for the present and future
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News from the Polson School District
POLSON — According to the US Department of Education, a “skills gap among jobs that require either a high school diploma, postsecondary certificate, or associate’s degree ... presents a barrier to American economic competitiveness” as more of these jobs exist than adults qualified to fill them. We can see the effects of this skills gap right here in Polson. Unless you know someone who’s a contractor, an electrician, or a plumber, good luck finding one in an emergency. One way to close this skill gap is to offer more Career and Technical Education (CTE) classes in high schools.
The Fordham Institute offers more reasons to provide robust CTE experiences in high schools, as “students who focus their CTE coursework are more likely to graduate high school by 21% compared to otherwise similar students” in addition to being more likely to gain other post-secondary training (Dougherty). If you’d like our students to have the opportunities that updated CTE and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) facilities present, the upcoming school bond election will help determine how well we can prepare PHS students not just for the future but for the present of our community. I’m Katrina Venters, a PHS teacher of 13 years and a mom of two school-aged kids. This week, I’d like to give you some more information on ways the bond could benefit our community as a whole.
Every time I drive home from Missoula, I see the “We’re Hiring!” sign at Rocky Mountain Twist. Walking past the Job Service office, I typically note the pages-long job list there, too. It seems this skills gap exists in our community, so how can we address it? In the years I’ve been at PHS, we’ve done no major renovations to our shops or science labs. In fact, it’s been nearly 20 years since the shop had an upgrade that moved the welding shop from the woodshop to a modified greenhouse, which is where the welding shop still is today. Our FACS classroom space is only a few years old, but it’s quite small. If the bond passes, PHS will add a high school job training center, including a new welding shop that will offer students cutting edge exposure to metals and manufacturing trades and a new wood shop to provide more opportunities for students to learn construction trades. Building more opportunities for students to learn trades benefits everyone. In fact, the MT Department of Labor & Industry’ s Employment Projections report for 2021-31 states that “carpenters, electricians, and plumbers are part of Montana’s registered apprentice program (and) are projected to have a high number of job openings.” We can start students on career paths that fulfill genuine needs in our community and economy right here with the right resources.
PHS offers STEM classes with new technology, such as Computer Science Essentials, along with classic courses in math, physics, and chemistry. Christina Rush, a science professor at SKC, explains that if you have “new equipment and consumables, you’re going to be able to make some really good things happen” even if your teaching spaces aren’t exactly up-to-date. Ms. Rush teaches in spaces built in 2010-11, while PHS’s science labs were built in 1973 and haven’t had major upgrades since the building was finished. Various teachers have carried out essential repairs but only the minimum ones required for safety. Although we can get grants for new equipment, having appropriate learning areas can prepare students to enter “the most rapidly growing, highest paying, and most innovative areas of the economy” - STEM fields (“Montana Employment Projections 2021-2031”). These jobs already exist, so by expanding these programs, PHS would better prepare students for the present condition of the workforce and economy in addition to their futures.
