Exploring career opportunities and curtailing COVID-19 were at the forefront of Monday night’s meeting of the Humboldt school board.
Middle school counselor Darcie Croisant presented board members with an overview of the Career and Technical Education program (CTE), and shared some details about a $10,000 grant being pursued in connection with the initiative.
Iola and Chanute schools already have similar programs in place, which will provide Humboldt with a guide for implementation as well as potential partnerships.
The CTE program has many facets, but is focused on skills development with the goal of helping Kansas to retain skilled workers and school districts to retain students. This is important because Kansas is currently ranked near the bottom in all 50 states when it comes to keeping educated workers close to home.
Possibilities for learning within the program are broad, ranging from introducing students to hands-on careers such as firefighting to developing an appreciation of mindfulness and emotional intelligence.
CTE students also get the opportunity to explore careers, do job-shadowing/internships and take visits to prospective colleges and universities.
It’s all about “keeping kids in school and keeping them productive,” Croisant said.
(Regarding other funding for the district, the board also accepted a donation from the Patterson Foundation for $9,530, and a donation from Monarch Cement for $10,000.)
WITH WINTER sports on the horizon, the board voted to adopt a series of COVID-19 adjustments and safety measures for the upcoming season.
Attendees should be aware that during basketball and wrestling, masks will be required inside buildings, temperatures will be taken upon entry and social distancing enforced once inside various venues.
“Fans will be asked to leave if they don’t comply,” said Stephanie Splechter, athletics director for USD 258.
Some districts are also implementing the additional measure of requiring exact change when paying entry fees or purchasing concessions, but Humboldt decided to not adopt this measure designed to cut down on the amount of money changing hands.
Splechter also noted that events will be live-streamed as much as possible, and that measures will likely be taken to cut down on crowd sizes at tournaments.
At this time, however, Humboldt is not going to limit attendance at any regular season events.
ANOTHER COVID-related discussion engaged the question of what might trigger a second shutdown of the district.
What sparked the debate was that Humboldt had originally said it would close the school and return to an online model once Allen County had 20 active virus cases.
