GRAVETTE -- High school principal Jay Chalk reported at the September school board meeting that the Gravette school has been chosen as a satellite campus for Northwest Technical Institute in Springdale. Board members voted later in the meeting to submit the school's satellite program to the Arkansas Career and Technical Department for its approval.
Welding classes will be the first program offered, in 2016-17. NTI will supply the equipment and instructors to teach the classes, which will be held in the old agricultural education building. Students will be enrolled in 90-minute classes and, when they finish the program, they will have industry certification and will have some college credit, all at no charge.
Welding was chosen because it was the top choice of vocational interests in a recent survey of GHS students and because NTI already has the equipment for such classes. Sixty-eight percent of the students surveyed chose welding as their first choice. Auto collision repair was the second choice of students surveyed.
Board president Jay Oliphant praised Chalk and school superintendent Richard Page for their leadership in developing the school's vocational program and for their efforts in collaborating with Gentry, Decatur and Bentonville school programs. "These guys are doing a great job," Oliphant said. He called the selection of Gravette as a satellite school location a "huge milestone" and pointed out it became a reality only after several years of planning and hard work.
"Through their persistence and leadership we have accomplished what no other school in the area has been able to accomplish," Oliphant said.
Superintendent Page, in turn, thanked Oliphant for his participation as school board president. He not only supported the administration's efforts but he was present at most meetings where the vocational programs were being discussed.
"We faced hurdles but we kept pressing on," Page said. "Great things are going on vocationally." He noted that the major issues now will be down in Little Rock, getting more money for financing vocational programs and more slots approved for students interested in enrolling.
Gravette is one of six Arkansas schools which have applied to the state board of education for approval of charter schools in the 2016-2017 school year. The other schools are Gentry, Springdale, Fayetteville, Cave City and Hot Springs. Schools that are board approved would be exempt from some state education requirements, such as teacher licensing and scheduling. Approved charter schools can customize class offerings to students' needs.
All these vocational program efforts are right in line with Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson's emphasis on workforce training and attempts to help state graduates land good jobs.
"A better-educated work force attracts more businesses and industries. That's a cycle we want to see repeated again and again," Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson, a Gravette native, wrote in a recent news release, "I've said it before: There's nothing you can do that you can't do in Arkansas. Students, you have the world at your fingertips. I want your best opportunities to be right here in Arkansas."
General News on 10/07/2015