Paris schools, Arkansas Tech envision career center by ’15
Leaders of the Paris School District and Arkansas Tech University-Ozark campus hope to open a satellite career-education center for high school students in Paris in the fall of 2015.
The state Board of Career Education is expected to consider the proposal at its meeting Thursday, Paris Superintendent Wayne Fawcett said.
The project is complex and faces hurdles, especially with the need for state funding to renovate a vacant manufacturing plant and to pay for the instruction, Fawcett said.
The Arkansas Department of Career Education will recommend approval contingent on funding, said Sandra Porter, interim deputy director of career and technical education. The department receives $21.1 million annually to disburse to career programs in high schools and to 24 career centers statewide.
The last new career centers and satellite campuses opened in 2003 and 2004, and funding is flat, Porter said, but enrollment continues to grow.
The vision for a Paris center came from Fawcett, in his third year as Paris superintendent, as he drove by the vacant manufacturing plant commonly known as the “pants factory,” he said.
“I would drive by and think what a colossal waste of space,” he said. “Why not turn it into an educational facility?”
That question sparked conversations between Fawcett and Bruce Sikes, chancellor of the Arkansas Tech University-Ozark campus, and they developed a proposal for the satellite career center.
Fawcett has worked on the project for two years and has involved legislators, nearby school districts and the Paris Area Economic and Community Development Committee of the Paris Chamber of Commerce. Fawcett is a member of the committee.
A career education center in Paris would meet several needs, including revitalizing an old building and providing a greater supply of skilled workers for manufacturers, he said.
“We can start preparing these kids to come out and go straight to work,” Fawcett said. “They’re going to get some college credit.”
Sikes said the project fits with the Ozark campus’s mission.
“At Arkansas Tech-Ozark, we are focused on career education and providing career education opportunities to the communities we serve,” Sikes said. “Industry has a need for a qualified workforce. Satellites are an economical way of assisting rural communities with getting an access point to higher education.”
The Paris satellite would provide programs for students interested in allied health fields, including those who want to be nurses, physical or occupational therapy assistants and health information technologists, Sikes said.
A second career program would focus on industrial technology and would prepare students to work on hightech control systems used to operate machines, Sikes said.
Sikes estimates an annual operating cost of $200,000, which would pay for the salaries and benefits for two fulltime instructors, supplies and equipment.
The project will require working with legislators during the next session on funding, Sikes said.
“Technical center funding in the state of Arkansas has been fairly flat for a number of years,” Sikes said.
Fawcett said they also will pursue grants.
The nonprofit Logan County Industrial Development Corp. owns the old factory and negotiated a lease-purchase agreement with a storm-shelter manufacturer, said Lee Lane, chairman of the economic development committee. The incoming manufacturer has agreed to share the facility with the career center, she said.
“If it works, it’ll really improve the community and the opportunities of the people in the community, particularly the students.”
Lane said the 1950s building initially was occupied by a milk company. A pants manufacturer also occupied the building and expanded it. The 60,000-square-foot plant has not been used for manufacturing in a little more than 10 years.
The Ozark campus currently operates one career center in Russellville that is linked to a smaller satellite in Danville. Together, the centers offer nine programs of study for more than 550 students from 11 school districts in Johnson, Pope and Yell counties, Director Pat Edmunds said.
Classes count for high school and college credit, with some programs providing certificates of proficiency or industry credentials, she said.
The programs in Russellville and Danville and those planned for Paris are designed to link to two-year degree programs offered at the Ozark campus and to four-year degree programs offered at Arkansas Tech, Sikes said.
“We get students on a career path and get them started,” Sikes said.