Schools chief touts plan for jobs training

Springdale superintendent speaks on career education

SPRINGDALE — Education has to change, and Springdale is ready to make that change happen, said School District Superintendent Jared Cleveland.

Cleveland spoke Friday at the annual membership lunch of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce. He used the opportunity to ask business leaders to help the district provide technical training needed for local jobs and to offer jobs, internships and apprenticeships to students seeking training.

Employers are looking for employees, and schools are not producing the employees the community needs, he said.

“You want someone who will show up on time, look you in the eye, collaborate, work hard and come with the skills you need,” Cleveland said.

The School District on Thursday announced the Innovation Career Center scheduled to open this fall at the Tyson School of Innovation. The school has been designated by the state Office of Skills Development as a Secondary Career Center, with the state office providing funding.

The Career Center will teach high school students the skills needed to earn professional technical permits, certifications and concurrent credit at no cost. Students will attend classes at their home schools and will then be transported to Northwest Technical Institute or Northwest Arkansas Community College, according to an email announcement by the district Thursday.

Initial programs of study at the Career Center will include industrial technology, diesel technology and instruction for certification as nursing assistants, emergency medical responders and technicians and other health care roles, according to the email.

Cleveland proposes students complete the same shorter programming that industry already uses to train employees. The students would learn alongside the employees. They would be trained by their senior years, he said.

Rebecca Williams Lencho, a human relations business partner at RocklineNorthwest Arkansas, said it’s not that easy. Workplace rules from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration will not allow workers younger than 18 around hazardous industrial equipment. And the company would need to restructure some of its jobs so students could work parttime, she said.

The company manufactures wet wipes in Springdale.

Trent Jones, the district’s director of communications, said the apprenticeships would follow guidelines set by the state skills office. Those internships would allow flexibility according to the ages of students, he said.

Cleveland noted Gov. Sarah Sanders has said she will work toward legislation that will give parents more options when it comes to schooling their children — public schools, charter schools, private schools and home schools.

Cleveland said the Springdale Career Center will give parents another choice.

Schools traditionally work to prepare students for college, leaving some students taking classes in which they are not interested but are mandated to take, he said.

Cleveland said changes in legislation could give the students a passing lane around academic standards and a pathway to a career. The state Legislature is set to make those changes, he said.

Education still uses the classroom model that was set 100 years ago: Students sitting in desks not moving with the teacher in front of the class talking, Cleveland noted.

And schools are held to standards that were developed in the 1980s, when then-Gov. Bill Clinton was in office, Cleveland said.

“We need to take a giant leap forward from what education has been,” Cleveland said. “Let’s transform public education.”