Program coordinator Jessica Barcinas Taylor said ARRA funding allows PSS to hire more instructors and teachers in the various career clusters which are aimed to provide students with useful skills.
Taylor did not specify how much funding the program is going to get, but she said it will be from a portion of the $24.3 million earmarked for the PSS from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund.
Taylor, who was Tuesday’s guest of the Rotary Club meeting at the Hyatt Regency, said high school students could either go to college or take courses under the career and technical education program.
“[We] provide career education programs that meet the interests and skills of the students,” she added.
Majority of high school students have shown interest in health science, finance, agriculture, food and natural resources — subjects offered through the program, Taylor said.
An assessment also showed that the overall skill clusters of high school students lean mainly on information technology, education and training, agriculture, food and natural resources, she added.
The program was formerly known as vocational education but its name was changed to combat the perception that voc-ed was only “second class.”
Moreover, voc-ed provides six to seven program areas to a few students.
In contrast, the new program has 16 career clusters for all students interested in air-conditioning, auto body, auto mechanics, bookkeeping, cabinet making, construction, digital video, video production, electricity, general business, home economics, hospitality and tourism, marketing, welding, technology and the arts.
With ARRA funding, Kagman High School vice principal Eric Magofna said they hope to open the hospitality and tourism career cluster and to again provide the maritime course next school year.
Magofna said the maritime course lacked a qualified science teacher but with the ARRA funding, they can now hire an instructor.
