Report: CCTI exceeded its goals for school year

A report presented at Carbon Career and Technical Institute’s joint operating committee meeting showed the school not only met, but exceeded a set of goals established for the 2017-18 school year.

Administrative director David Reinbold presented the news to the committee members, highlighting a number of initiatives that were set in place at the beginning of the last school year.

“We talked about delivering a unit on personal finance. It was fantastic. We partnered with Junior Achievement, Jean Bales and Mike Baumgardt taught the course and it was a success. The culminating activity was a trip to their center in Pittston Township,” Reinbold said.

At the Pittston Township center, students were encouraged to utilize their finance skills in a simulation set up to mimic a small town.

Revisions and improvements for the course are being developed for the upcoming school year, with plans to involve 10th-grade students as well as seniors.

A mission to increase participation in SkillsUSA at the district and state competition levels was a runaway success. While CCTI routinely performs well in SkillsUSA competitions, the 2017-18 school year saw a record number of students reach the state level.

“It was phenomenal, 52 people attended the state competition, a 49 percent increase over the previous year. It’s a matter giving more kids more opportunities, and the advisers, Chris (Graver), Maritza (Reinbold), Kevin (Kuehner) and Tammy (Marshall), that’s what they did. They went out and recruited kids, they took them under their wing, they trained them in different activities, increased the numbers, and we saw great results,” Reinbold said.

The first-ever Precision Machining Contest proved to be a successful venture, with students from CCTI, Monroe County Technical Institute, Hazleton Career Center and the Schuylkill Technology Center coming to CCTI to test their abilities in machining.

“Kevin Kuehner came up with this idea, and last November he brought four schools in for the contest, and it helped prepare students for Skills. Our student, Jason Walck, won it, but the other schools were very happy, and they planned on coming back for the next year,” Reinbold said.

Career Institute of Technology of Easton and Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School have agreed to participate in the upcoming 2018 competition as well.

A mission to increase nontraditional students has met with positive feedback, with recruiting materials promoting students to become involved in areas outside of normal preferences, such as welding for females or cosmetology for males.

“Chris’ daughter made that part of her DECA project in nontraditional recruitment, and maybe she’ll do it again this year, so she may get involved in it,” Reinbold said, referring to Skyler Graves, who participates in welding and has helped to promote the path to young female students.

Reinbold reported that an initiative to maintain an active wellness committee was successful, and initiatives such as offering more healthy snack options at the school store and facilitating increased access to the school’s fitness center are underway.

A focus on student achievement based on high National Occupational Competency Testing Institute and Keystone scores, featuring a continually revised curriculum, lesson plan and material evaluations and scheduling improvements are showing positive results. Reinbold said that while the school will have to wait to receive last year’s Keystone Exam scores, the NOCTI exam scores increased over last year’s results.

The school’s Professional Development Plan lessons have been promoting additional employability skills, including soft skills like communication, team management and nontechnical abilities that are necessary in the modern workplace.

“These are the lessons that teachers do every Wednesday in addition to teaching their traditional tech area. If you’re involved in say, welding or carpentry, every Wednesday you set that aside to do PDP lessons, professional development, where they talk about skills that are needed to be successful in the working world,” Reinbold said, pointing out that more resources are being added to the curriculum for the upcoming year.

Two nontraditional summer camps were hosted by the school in July, with numerous CCTI instructors introducing middle schoolers to several career options that are often dominated by the opposite sex.

“The boys went through culinary, cosmetology and health-medical, and we had about 10 boys rotate through those programs. The girls rotated through auto collision, auto body, electronics, electronic engineering and carpentry. That was really successful,” Reinbold said.

The camp costs — approximately $14,000 — were covered by Perkins Grants and the SHINE program.

Reinbold concluded his summary by thanking the board and instructors for all their help in ensuring the school’s continued success in reaching their goals, adding that several other initiatives for the upcoming year will be revealed in a future joint operating committee meeting.

“We’re very fortunate that we set these goals last year, and as you can see, every one was met. We thank you for your support, you know we talked about these different things and what we needed from you to make this stuff happen, and we appreciate that,” Reinbold said.