District to Close Three of Its Career Centers

By Jennifer Smith Richards, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

Apr. 1–You graduate from here, and you’re ready for a job.

And not just the minimum-wage, burgerflipping kind.

Career-center kids can leave high school and make $50,000 a year in computer networking, or make big money rebuilding cars. They can fight fires, crunch numbers at a bank or go to college, if they choose.

For now, anyway.

Career centers in Columbus are changing. In the next couple of years, some programs will die. The Northwest, Northeast and Southeast career centers will close.

Soon, students who want the kind of education that used to be called vo-ed or vo-tech will have to work harder: Some will have to get up earlier to go to a career center; some will have to pick up classes in summer school or online.

Columbus Public Schools are "showing they don’t put a high value on learning the techniques and skills you need for the job you love," said Zack Hatton, a senior at Northwest Career Center who’s studying auto-body repair.

"I think it’s going to be a great loss."

Here’s what will change:

– The four existing career centers will be consolidated into two: one at the Fort Hayes complex, which houses one career center now, and one at a Downtown site that’s yet to be built.

– Programs will be revamped, the district says, to meet the needs of a changing job market. For example, the animal-care program, which teaches students the basics of pet shopkeeping, will become a veterinary program. Instead of learning nurse assisting, students can train to become licensed practical nurses. And, along with some others, the radio- and TV-repair program will be cut. The district says it’s no longer relevant.

Old programs such as the optician training program and pharmacy will be killed or moved into nursing-related ones. Just about all of the classes will be changed so they’re tied to a recognized certificate, officials say.

"We should be ever-evolving," said Pete Maneff, who oversees the district’s career programs.

"There are new, emerging occupations. That’s where the pain is — a lot of our programming was from the 1970s and we were not emerging into new occupations."

– Beginning next school year, high-school start times will change, meaning some careercenter students can take fewer classes.

Columbus’ 1,800 careercenter students spend half their days at high school and half at a career center. Students who attend a center in the morning will have to start an hour earlier than other highschool students, whose start time has been moved to 8:30 a.m. to save money.

"What kid — unless they’re really dedicated — will choose to start at 7:30?" asked Northwest Career Center Principal Kathy Ricketts.

Students who do their core high-school work in the morning and their career work in the afternoon might have trouble fitting their courses in.

The changes are a surprise to some students and teachers.

"We don’t honestly know what’s going on," said Robert Parker, who teaches collision repair at Northwest.

One thing is certain, he said: "What’s really happened here is you’ve limited opportunities for students."

About five years ago, the district tried to close Northwest. Other school districts, which send students to Columbus’ career buildings, complained and pointed to a longterm contract that said Columbus is obligated to keep its programs.

In December, after months of secret negotiations, the district sold the Northeast Career Center near Easton for $9.83 million to a holding company for Limited Brands.

Now, plans to build a $24 million center on Mound Street between 4 th and 5 th streets Downtown have been approved by the Downtown Commission.

However, district officials are touting it as "flexible" building that could be turned into another type of school, if needed.

It’s unclear how many suburban schools that now use Columbus’ career centers will keep sending students after the consolidation and program revamp.

Upper Arlington, Westerville and Grandview currently pay to send students. Worthington did until this year. It started sending career-minded students to the Delaware Area Career Center, which had some attractive programs Columbus didn’t, district officials said.

Maneff said the district’s new career philosophy will be attractive.

Hatton, who said he has always dreamed of working with cars, hopes students will keep choosing career education.

"It helps a lot of students from dropping out," the 18-year-old said.

"It’s something great, but I guess it all comes back to how committed you are."

jsmithrichards@dispatch.com

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