Career/technology centers prepare to open amid COVID-19

By Christine Haines
chaines@yourmvi.com

Students and staff members at area career and technical centers are used to thinking on their feet to come up with practical solutions to real world problems — and the COVID-19 pandemic has been no less of a challenge.
Neil Henehan, director of the Mon Valley Career and Technology Center, which is a consortium of several Mon Valley school districts, is juggling six different reopening plans. Some plans are fully in person, others fully virtual and others involve a hybrid approach.
Classes start there Aug. 24 for students from California, Charleroi, Belle Vernon, Monessen, Ringgold, Bentworth and Bethlehem Center, some of which will be attending virtually only.
“That’s an ever-evolving situation because each district is unique,” Henehan said. “The challenge for a CTC director is to keep the lines of communication open. I have an amazing group of superintendents that I’m working with.”
Henehan said each student’s schedule is adjusted based on the schedule of the home district as well as the program needs at the CTC.
“We’re doing a hybrid program. It’s still evolving daily here,” Henehan said. “The staff is very excited about this. They get excited about problem solving.”
Henehan said the biggest issue is to make certain that on the days students are in the brick-and-mortar building, whether it is two days a week or four, that they get plenty of hands-on training to develop their psychomotor problem solving.
“They use high-order problem solving every day and they don’t even know they’re doing it. That’s what we’re trying to foster through this situation,” Henehan said.
Henehan said some students, because of their own district’s reopening plan, will attend in person four days a week while others will be split into morning and afternoon groups two days a week, again depending on their own district’s plan.
“We’ve grown in enrollment this year. We’ve added almost 100 students this year. It’s presenting a challenge with social distancing,” Henehan said.
The school is utilizing outdoor areas whenever possible and in some cases, outside placements as well.
“We’re really growing our cooperative program where students can earn high school credits and income at the same time,” Henehan said.
While there will be some classroom review of course material, most lectures will be presented online, with all students taking virtual classes on Fridays. In-person class time will be dedicated to more tactile projects, Henehan said.
“It’s more like a cyber school that has students reporting to it for their hands-on practical skills,” Henehan said.
All of the courses have supplemental virtual components, such as three dimensional modeling, so no physical hands-on projects will be sent home with students at this time.
“It’s a slow and structured start that engages our kids in fundamental skills and builds in them until the dust settles,” Henehan said.
The situation is similar at Steel Center, which encompasses 11 school districts in the Allegheny County portion of the Mon Valley including Elizabeth Forward, West Jefferson Hills and Clairton, each with its own reopening plan.
Classes at Steel Center are set to start Aug. 31 and Executive Director Kevin Rice said he has been working with the member superintendents all summer to coordinate plans and as an extension of those districts, Steel Center has developed pathways to success for the students.
“As we start the year we have about 300 new students. They’re going to have questions. We believe that we’re prepared for the coming weeks,” Rice said.

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