School Superintendent Tim Smith, Assistant Superintendent for Operations Shawn Dennis and the rest of district’s leadership team were noticeably absent from the Youth Summit held at Brownsville Community Center on Monday night.
Fortunately, the community center was packed with parents, youth, community leaders, elected officials and candidates seeking office. Had Smith and Dennis attended, they would have heard students and parents complain that the touted career academies aren’t cutting it. The audience would like to see more traditional vocational education offered that would lead to jobs for the graduates.
The school district has repeatedly turned down vocational initiatives and grants. The late Randy Ramos of GBSI wanted to set up cybersecurity training classes at all the middle and high schools and was rejected by then-superintendent Malcolm Thomas. In 2019. Thomas and the school board rejected a $2.3-million grant from Triumph Gulf Coast that would have created workforce development programs. They objected to having their performance measured and repaying the grant if they failed. Other school districts in Northwest Florida didn’t balk at the requirement and have received Triumph grants.
Still, parents and students want vocational training. Facilitator Sue Straughn said, “I hear a lot from young people and from some councilors of some of the schools is that the young people want to be doing hands-on things.”
Youth Summit board member Calandria Long pointed out that not every student can access career academies. “At my school (Tate High), we have a select few academies. So if you’re not interested in those academies, then you pretty much just don’t get into one. And I know at West Florida (High), they have a wider range of academies, but you have to get accepted into West Florida. If you’re not accepted into West Florida, you don’t get access to those academies; then you just have to take what’s at your school.”
Board chair Aolani O’Neal asked school board members Patty Hightower and Laura Elder, “Why is there a requirement for some of the academies that are placed into the schools? Basically, why can’t you guys just come down and meet the youth at the level that we are? Some youth may not have a 3.5 GPA to get into the nursing academy. Why not just allow for it to be open to all of the kids in the school?”
“That’s one of the things that I have been looking at when I say traditional policies and procedures,” said Dr. Edler. “All of the children are not really given the opportunity to engage in those academies. And when I look at the guidelines for that, we’re reviewing those to see how we can change those to attract more children in those programs.”
Hightower said she likes the academy approach but added she has “for years tried to take away the academic requirement.”
“Early in my tenure on the school board, I visited a county in Florida that took students that were Level 1 readers, Level 2 readers, and had a 98% graduation rate by the time they left high school because they engaged them in something they wanted to do,” she told the audience. “And academies cost and the other piece of academies is finding people to instruct in those areas. And so I understand, we try to provide the choice, but we can’t have the same academy everywhere. Although, I think we have culinary and medical academies pretty much at every one of our high schools. But I sit here; I wrote it down because maybe it’s time for us to do another survey about what interests the students.”
State Rep. Alex Andrade said the state has funding available for apprenticeship programs, but Northwest Florida has almost zero.
He said, “That’s the result of the fact that people already in that profession have not been going back and participating in this stuff and reaching out to school districts and saying what can we do to go help? Because it is a sacrifice from the folks that are helping administer those programs and participating, the plumbers, the bricklayers, the framers, the electricians.”
Andrade continued, “If you really do want to encourage more students to participate in those programs, reach out to your school board members, reach out to your principals and help participate. Because I will go work and find that money for you in the Department of Education, and they will go work and set up those and open those doors for you.”
Much more was covered at the meeting, which I will include in our July 21 edition. The Youth Summit Board included Aolani O’Neal (chair), Javarius Carter (co-chair), Zuh’Niyah Clark, Jordyn Palmer, Calandria Long and Chase Rogers.
“So often, we give the negative stereotypes that young children are not doing positive things,” said Commissioner May when he closed the meeting. “It doesn’t matter whether or not the elected officials will agree with all your ideas. That’s why you have dialogue. That’s why you have conversation. It doesn’t mean that their idea’s right and your idea’s wrong. It means that we all have opinions. And then, we have to collaboratively meet together. And so, I hope that those who are in positions of authority, positions of power, have listened.”
It’s a shame that Superintendent Smith and Assistant Superintendent Dennis weren’t at the Brownsville Community Center to listen. Until they do, vocational training and workforce development will continue to be blocked.
These items will forever stay in the “too hard” box, and our youth will suffer.