Collierville group raises funds for job training
When Collierville Partners in Education formed in 2016 to raise millions for the city’s schools, the multi-million dollar behemoth of a high school still existed only in blueprints. Now, the school is completed and students have been in attendance for months, but the organization isn’t done.
The nonprofit, founded by the Collierville Chamber of Commerce, has raised about $2 million for the school district, chamber CEO Kanette Keough said. Now that the high school has opened, fundraising priorities have shifted away from athletics and toward educational programs, including vocational training.
“Our goal is to prepare students for success, and that means all students, not just high-performing ones,” Keough said.
The group has set a goal for 2020 that every student graduating Collierville High School will have post-secondary credits or some kind of vocational certificate. As it adjusts its focus, members of the Partners in Education program are working to develop initiatives for students focusing on information technology and agriculture, and working with some of the biggest corporations in the area, including Fedex and Juice Plus+.
Keough said the partnerships with local businesses benefit both sides, allowing students to explore different career paths and get hands-on training opportunities and giving business leaders the chance to help build a local workforce and identify promising young students to fill critical workforce gaps.
“It has been really promising,” she said. “We have hundreds of businesses and business leaders working with us, and it’s been a great ride so far.”
While much of the school was funded through a bond sale approved in 2015 — the debt will be paid back through sales tax and a property tax increase also approved by the city’s board of mayor and aldermen — out-