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Hernando Today

A Matter Of Choice

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By LINNEA BROWN, Hernando Today

Published: February 12, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Starting in August, local high school students' future career interests will play a much larger part in determining which school they go to.

Last week, the Hernando County School Board received an update of local officials' plans to comply with new, tougher state requirements that aim to make "academy" curriculum more rigorous and relevant for local jobs.

Officials have spent the past month reviewing a breakdown of the specific vocational and technical career programs offered at Nature Coast Technical, Central, Hernando and Springstead High Schools, many of which duplicate each other.

But that format is about to change.

Implemented in July, the Florida Career and Professional Education Act requires every school district in the state to develop a five-year strategic plan to match labor market needs with appropriate coursework and industry certification. Each district must also have at least one career and professional academy operational by the beginning of the 2008 school year.

Rather than focusing on only one career academy for the district, officials at each of Hernando County's high schools have chosen an area of study to focus on strengthening to meet the state's new "academy" standards. Nature Coast will strengthen its allied health academy; Central will strengthen its business program; Springstead will focus on a Web design program and Hernando will focus on its veterinary and agriscience service program.

While current zoning rules will remain in place, students will be encouraged to choose their school based on the program they wish to enroll in, secondary curriculum specialist and staff development coordinator Dave Schoelles said.

"It's similar to what we have now at Nature Coast, where a student can apply for (the school's) cosmetology or automotive programs because that's the school that offers those," he said. "For example, if a student is zoned for Central but wants to go to the agriscience academy at Hernando, they will be able to (attend) because of that."

The district's duplicate programs will no longer be offered, and students will instead choose a school based on their program of interest, Schoelles said.

"I'm not saying it couldn't work (to attend one school and be enrolled in a career academy at another), but the intent really is that students will transfer to a school for that complete program," he said. "They'll be getting a concentrated series of classes, all designed to prepare them for that career field."

District officials have spent the past month meeting with representatives of the local business community, chamber of commerce and Pasco-Hernando Community College to develop a five-year strategic plan for workforce-relevant high school reform. The plan will then go before the school board and the Pasco-Hernando Workforce Board.

"The whole program has to be developed in cooperation with the local business community. It's not something that we, as a district, develop on our own," Schoelles said.

Officials hope to have the plan in place by April.

However, Schoelles said no one is expecting a huge surge of students switching schools this fall.

"We're really trying to develop the programs within the schools they are in, and then our focus will be on making them available to students at other schools," he said. "We don't expect a lot of interest the first year - but we're going to be recruiting much more actively in future years."

Schoelles said that, realistically, the district could have as many as three to five interest-specific academies per school.

Beginning in 2011, Florida high school diplomas will also show a specific "major," or four of their eight elective credits in a major area of interest, designed to provide a higher-than-average level of expertise in a particular subject or skill.

Students graduating from career academies will receive a diploma, possible college credit and professional industry certification.

In order to obtain state funding, career and professional academies must offer industry-specific curriculum that aligns directly to local workforce needs, as indicated by studies by the University of West Florida's Haas Institute.

Reporter Linnea Brown can be reached at 352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.

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