PAOLA — Career and technical education was a focal point of the Paola school board’s most recent bond work session.
The special meeting Thursday, Jan. 5, was scheduled to help map out Paola USD 368’s next school bond proposal tentatively set to be proposed to voters in the fall.
Voters narrowly rejected a $40 million bond proposal in September 2022 by 77 votes, but one component of the proposal that received strong positive public feedback was the proposed career and technical education addition in the southeast portion of Paola High School that could allow for onsite automotive classes. PHS students currently travel to Garnett for automotive and HVAC classes.
Paola school board members have shown an interest in possibly designating more funding for career and technical improvements and offerings in the next bond proposal, and board member Scott Golubski invited two PHS alumni who are experts in the field to attend the work session Jan. 5 to provide some insight.
Richard Fort is a 1980 PHS graduate, and he is dean of the industrial technology division at Johnson County Community College.
Scott Grandon is a 1979 PHS graduate, and he is a retired member of the Pipe Fitters Local 533.
Golubski himself has experience working as an automation, instrument and controls technician.
Fort encouraged USD 368 officials to use their resources to build up a few technical education programs to excel in rather than trying to offer a little bit of everything.
“Most schools that are successful focus on two or three things and do them very well,” Fort said. “If you decide to do it, you need to do it right.”
He added that the cost of welding supplies and refrigerant for HVAC classes continue to increase, which can make it difficult to fund those classes.
“It’s very expensive to run some of these programs,” Fort said.
Still, Fort said more classes are needed in all of the areas because there is a shortage of skilled workers in the trade fields.
“I don’t think you can pick anything that isn’t going to be successful,” Fort said. “There is so much need for everything. We can’t supply enough graduates.”
That need is only likely to grow in Kansas, Fort said, with the new Panasonic battery manufacturing factory being built in De Soto.
School board member Randy Rausch asked if focusing on just a few programs is really the best idea rather than introducing students to a number of fields to determine their interests.
Fort recommended a dual approach. He said when he was in school, he took a class introducing him to the basics of welding, woodworking, drafting, electrical and other trade skills. PHS could benefit from a similar introductory class, with a later focus on just a few programs, Fort said.
He also said students today are in more need of basic skills such as how to use tools and utilize construction math.
“You’ve got to be able to read a tape measure,” he said.
Fort said it was different when he first started teaching because many of his students grew up on a farm and already knew how to use tools. They also were raised in the country spending time building things such as treehouses.
Grandon agreed and added that basic classes teaching first aid and training from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are often required for new hires in the industry, and high school students with that training would have a leg up.
Grandon said it’s important at the high school level to look at things that would make students hirable to local contractors. This includes partnering with organizations like the Mechanical Contractors Association of Kansas City, which could potentially look at hiring new apprentices out of the program.
Grandon also mentioned partnerships with Doherty Steel and Taylor Forge Engineered Systems locally, as well as other local companies.
Grandon said a career fair would be a good way to increase exposure of the trades to both students and parents, and it would establish partnerships with local businesses.
“There needs to be an understanding that there’s nothing wrong with working with your hands,” Grandon said.
Grandon said he learned about pipefitting from his father, but there was not a lot of info about it in school at the time.
“I got a $50 welding scholarship when I graduated,” Grandon said.
He added that some of the best exposure about the Pipe Fitters Local 533 recently came from PHS grad Cole Rogers, who is a member of the Local 533 who won the 2022 United Association Welding Championship.
Prior to getting into the union, Rogers worked for Taylor Forge for a year as a welder, and Grandon once again emphasized the importance of the high school partnering with Taylor Forge.
Paola Superintendent Matt Meek said part of the struggle of career and technical education classes is finding the right instructor. Meek said it can be difficult to find someone in the industry willing to get out of the workforce and get their teaching license to instruct high school students knowing that it likely will be a pay cut.
“It’s usually someone at the end of their career looking to slow down and give back,” Meek said.
Josh Furnish is the new industrial technology teacher at Paola High School, and he is focused on finding new ways to introduce students to different trade skills.
Furnish said he is teaching drafting this year, and next year he plans to teach blueprint reading and more industrial drafting rather than mechanical.
Furnish is in the process of working to gain additional certification from the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) and the Home Builders Institute (HBI) which will open up more opportunities for PHS students.
Furnish also is seeking other revenue sources to help benefit the programs. He recently applied for and received a grant from the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City. Officials from the organization recently visited PHS to present Furnish with a check for $2,000.
Furnish said the grant money will allow PHS students to participate in the Parade of Playhouses, which will give the students an opportunity to design and build unique playhouses that will be auctioned off at Union Station in Kansas City, Mo.
PHS Principal Jeff Hines said he is proud of the technical education classes currently provided at the high school. Some of those classes include welding, woodworking, drafting, culinary arts and animal science. Students also can travel to Garnett for automotive and HVAC classes, and additional classes are offered through Fort Scott Community College, including welding and health careers.
Hines said the high school has a great partnership with the Missouri Welding Institute, where the PHS welders consistently rank toward the top. He said an upcoming field trip to visit the Pipe Fitters Local 533 will also help some students start making possible future career connections.
“We have the kids that they want right now,” Hines said.
During the regular monthly school board meeting Monday, Jan. 9, Hines talked about how each student has an Individual Plan of Study (IPS) that helps them map out a career path.
Hines and IPS and Real World coordinator Jenni Walterman talked about partnerships with local businesses that allow students to job shadow and get internships.
They also talked about YouScience, which gives students career suggestions based on their intertests and abilities.
During the Jan. 5 work session, Agricultural science teachers Tom Schull and John Menefee both talked about how the classes they teach help prepare students for future careers.
Schull said animal science goes beyond farming and includes topics like vaccines and veterinary medicine. He recently brought in a calf he lost on his farm so it could be dissected, teaching students basic animal biology.
Menefee said there is a need for better animal science resources, and he’s still disappointed the district was unable to provide a new facility with outdoor animal runs and automatic waterers like what was discussed leading up to the April 2014 $17 million school bond that was approved by voters.
“We’ve got the knowhow, we’ve got the ability, but our facilities need updates,” Menefee said.
Currently, animal science uses a portion of a building in the industrial park that also houses the district’s bus barn.
The school district previously had planned to construct a 3,000-square-foot agricultural building for an animal science lab along a gravel access road southeast of Cottonwood Elementary, but Superintendent Matt Meek said zoning issues became roadblocks to that plan.
Meek and the school board members agreed that the district needs to be careful about being too specific about what future plans will entail before bond funding is approved because the specifics may depend on the cost per square foot and what is available.
Jimmy Hay, the district’s director of finance, compared it to purchasing a house.
“Before you pick out the furniture for the new house, you have to get a loan approved,” Hay said.
Technical education wasn’t the only focus during the work session, as the school board members also wanted to hear from other teachers who could be potentially impacted by a school bond.
Paola Middle School art teacher Sydney Goldman said the acoustics are terrible in the art room, which used to be the school’s shop room, and there is a bad echo that is amplified when there are 30 kids in there.
“It’s loud, and that’s a big issue,” Goldman said.
She added that the plumbing in the classroom is not designed for an art room, and even though she tries to limit what is being sent down the drain, the traps in the sink constantly need to be cleaned.
The classroom itself also needs to be modernized, and Goldman mentioned the original avocado green countertops. She added, though, that she does have a lot of storage that she hopes to maintain.
Meek said modernization is needed throughout the middle school, and that was a part of the last failed bond issue.
“We’re talking about a 50-year-old building,” Meek said.
One of the proposed changes being discussed at the middle school is relocating the existing media center to open up the commons area, where school administrators have struggled to find enough space for lunch and other activities.
Proposed design plans show the media center could be moved to the west and expanded.
Middle school librarian Anita Yerkes said she understands the need to modernize, but part of her will find it hard to say goodbye to the existing glass-walled middle school library if it is moved during the renovation because she has been working there for 19 years.
“I don’t think you’ll find a more beautiful library in other schools,” Yerkes said. “I’ve enjoyed that space.”
Kathy Wulfkuhle, Family and Consumer Science teacher, said the culinary arts classrooms could use electrical and plumbing upgrades, as well as more storage space.
Mike Hursey, owner of Casa Somerset Bed & Breakfast and a proponent of locally grown food and sustainable agriculture, said the school district would be wise to visit the Broadmoor Bistro and Broadmoor Urban Farm operated by the Center for Academic Achievement within the Shawnee Mission School District. He said it is one of the best culinary schools in the country.
“If you’re going to do the culinary program, you really need to look at Broadmoor,” Hursey said.
Multiple school board members during the work session made a point to address the teachers in attendance and assure them that none of the proposed plans are being considered because the district thinks the teachers aren’t doing a good job.
Golubski said he just wants to continue to strive to improve resources and opportunities for students that will help them find careers.
“I’m challenging all of us to make it better,” Golubski said.
