Enrollment increases in career and technical education pathways

At Scott County High School, CTE Programs are Agriculture, Family and Consumer Sciences, Business/Marketing, Information Technology, Teaching & Learning, and Criminal Justice. 

At Elkhorn Crossing School, CTE pathways are Biomed, Health Science, Law & Justice, Media Arts and Engineering.

At ECS, enrollment in CTE pathways remains stable, with 808 enrollments this year, compared to 835 in 2022-2023.

 At GCHS, enrollments in CTE pathways jumped from 796 to 1593 enrollments. At SCHS, enrollments jumped from 633 to 1411. Districtwide, enrollments jumped from 2254 to 3812. 

Enrollments are counted instead of students, because one student could be in two pathways at once, Emmons said. 

This is due to positions funded by the board of education, and the switch to block scheduling at the high schools, which enables students to take more classes, Emmons said. 

“That is due to the section 7 positions that you all provided, they were able to expand their CTE offerings, and going from six courses to eight courses gives students more opportunity to be a part of these classes,” Emmons said. “With block scheduling, students can have the opportunity to be in a CTE pathway, they can take AP and Dual Credit, they can take band.”

At GCHS, FACS (which includes the popular culinary pathway, Emmons said), is the most popular pathway, with 721 enrollments. Agriculture is second, with 446 enrollments. Information Technology has 236 enrollments and Welding has 113. Three newly created pathways, Health Science, Industrial, and Teaching & Learning, have 36, 41, and 12 enrollments, respectively. 

At SCHS, FACS was the most popular with 467 enrollments, Agriculture was second with 368. Business/Marketing was third with 335 enrollments, more than doubling from the 2022-2023 school year. Information Technology, new in 2023-2024, had 164 enrollments in its first year, which SCS Superintendent Billy Parker credited partly to Cody Logan, who teaches in that pathway.

Criminal justice grew from 30 enrollments in 2022-2023 to 77 in 2023-2024. Teaching & Learning had only 9 enrollments, to total 20 in both High Schools. 

“I’m not thrilled with where we are on the teaching & learning pathway, so the schools have been put on notice that if this next year is not any better, I have a plan, and I’ll leave it at that,” Parker said. 

ECS’s pathways from most to least enrollments were engineering, media arts, health science, law and justice, and biomedical, the smallest pathway at the school. 

To complete a pathway, students must take four courses in it. 

The school district received a mid-year Local Area vocational education center adjustment funds of more than $600,000, which went back into improving the programs, Emmons said. 

CTE may be coming to middle schools soon, Emmons said. 

“The goal is that we will have career choices at all three middle schools,” Emmons said. 

The board approved increased graduation requirements for High School. In 2025, a minimum of 24 credits will be required at SCHS and GCHS, and in 2026 and beyond, a minimum of 26 credits will be required. At Phoenix Horizon Academy, a minimum of 22 will be required in 2025 and beyond. 

The change in graduation requirements is due to the schedule change, which allows students more opportunities for class credit. 

Finishing touches are going on the outside of the new Scott County High School, as well as extensive work on the interior. 

“The three story classroom wing is starting to look like a three story classroom wing, I would almost say they are ahead in that area,” said Tony Thomas, the vice president of Clotfelter Samokar, the design firm for working with SCS.

Work on the school appears to be on track for occupation at the start of the 2024-2025 school year, Thomas said. 

“They are still committed to being done, turning the classroom wing over early summer so that Scott County can do a lot of things, and then turning the school over in plenty of time before August so that you can occupy the building,” Thomas said. 

The board unanimously approved the contract for the renovation of the current Scott County High School into Scott County Middle School, with Calhoun Construction, for $4,004,000. Calhoun recently constructed a new concession stand at Georgetown Middle School. 

“Our biggest concern about Calhoun was not so much the quality, because the concession stand is a nice concession stand, but their timeline, as we were flipping through the construction reports, it was ‘when are they going to get it done?’” Thomas said. 

Both Thomas and Parker talked with Calhoun and were assured that changes were made that would ensure on-time completion of the project. 

The board went into two executive sessions at the end of their meeting to discuss student discipline, and expelled one student, and postponed a decision on another. 

At the start of the meeting, Parker recognized the players, coaches, and support staff for the 11th Region Boys’ Basketball Champions, the Great Crossing Warhawks. Each member of the team was presented with a Scott County Schools challenge coin. 

“They made our school, our district, and our community proud,” Parker said.

Source: News-Graphic