HUMBOLDT After more than a decade of going without, USD 258 is reintroducing a catalog of business courses into its curriculum as part of the districts Career and Technical Education program.
On Monday, the Humboldt school board voted to add five business-oriented CTE pathways which is to say, a sequence of classes designed to match a students career ambition that would include courses in marketing, business finance, management, entrepreneurship, and business instruction.
Humboldt teachers Aubrey Jones and Kim Isbell worked in conjunction with middle school principal Stephanie Splechter to create the menu of additional pathways.
Having been in advisory meetings and on leadership teams, Isbell told the board, weve heard multiple times that we need a business department. Kids have also been asking: Why dont we have business classes? … Making these additions we would almost double the pathways that we offer our students.
The district currently offers six career pathways, ranging from A/V communication to agriculture to family science, but nothing geared toward business.
And students arent oblivious to the benefits these courses might provide them in the real world, said Jones. A lot of the kids are talking about the revitalization thats going on around town, and how they feel business classes would be good for them. Theyre talking about how they want to open this boutique or that store. Its become more of a thing to have these entrepreneurship skills, but we dont have those classes to offer the kids.
Splechter predicted that the starting cost for such a venture would be somewhere around $50,000. The base salary right now [for a new teacher] is $38,740 and odds are were not going to get one that cheap and then the 12 new courses [would add] an approximate cost of $10,000 for curriculum.
These are the upfront costs, explained Splechter, but eventually were going to make that money back in CTE funding. Humboldts six existing pathways earn the district $96,628 in career tech funding. And while the first year were not going to make $96,000, said Splechter, eventually we hope the interest will be high enough that well have enough students in those classes that it will pay for itself. There are going to be some startup costs but eventually it should be self-sustaining.
For board president Kevin Heisler, the move was a long time coming. Since I got on the board, said Heisler, one of my top goals has been to get business back in the schools. I think its great. The board voted unanimously to approve the new courses.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Allen County 911 Director Angela Murphy updated the board on the positive achievements made by the multi-district school safety committee since its inception in February 2018. The committee includes school officials from Humboldt, Moran, Iola, and Allen Community College, plus a wide selection of area public safety and law enforcement personnel. The value of a committee like this, said Murphy, is that it encourages consistency and uniform response patterns across all of the countys many schools should an emergency arise.
Elementary school principal Staci Hudlin said her building had been overwhelmed by illness in recent weeks. On Monday, for example, 37 students missed school because of illness influenza A, in most cases. A district is required to report to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment anytime 10 percent of the student population is absent due to illness. Humboldts sick-rate currently hovers around 9.4 percent.
In a more positive statistic, the elementary school achieved a 100 percent vaccination rate, thanks in large part, said Hudlin, to the diligence of school nurse Wendy Froggatte.
