MARSHALL — The Marshall area community needs a strong workforce, and building it is going to take teamwork, said presenters at Monday’s Marshall School Board meeting.

Representatives from the Marshall school district, the Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce and the Southwest Minnesota Private Industry Council told school board members about the progress they’ve made on expanding career and technical education (CTE) in Marshall Public Schools.

“It’s taken us some time, but we’re really getting places,” said Beth Ritter, director of teaching and learning at MPS.

One path the group is pursuing is to have a Work & Learn Coordinator help connect schools and students with learning opportunities from area employers.

Ritter said discussions about career and technical education have been going on over the past year. MPS has a couple of strategic goals about making sure students have the skills they need in the workforce.

“One of them is specifically around the possible expansion of our CTE programming and ensuring that we’re meeting the needs of our community and our surrounding area,” Ritter said. “From there, we held a meeting with many different community members,” including business owners and representatives of local industries, she said. In addition, a core group of people have been meeting to figure out what CTE should look like for Marshall students.

There’s a definite need for Marshall to be able to retain young people in the area community, said Marshall Area Chamber president Brad Gruhot.

“We have an aging workforce, and we are looking to backfill that workforce with the incoming high schoolers that are out there right now, and people that are looking for work,” Gruhot said. However, there’s a gap between the projected population and labor force growth in Minnesota by 2030, he said.

“So, an initiative like this is certainly needed,” Gruhot said.

One idea the core group thought MPS could benefit from would be having a Work & Learn Coordinator, to help connect students with possible opportunities for work-based learning.

“Work-based learning solves a problem faced by many young people, and that is that it’s hard to get a job without work experience, and it’s hard to get work experience without a job,” said Eriann Faris of the Southwest Minnesota PIC. Through work-based learning, students can learn about particular careers or industries, develop technical and job-market skills, and find paths to possible internships or jobs.

Faris said the framework the PIC uses for work-based learning combines career exploration with hands-on work or exposure to different industries.

“Since 2018, the Private Industry Council has had a Work & Learn Coordinator really act as the boots on the ground,” t o bring together schools and employers and support both, Faris said. That support can include everything from providing teachers with knowledge of different industries, to matching students to available opportunities to learn and work with employers.

“To date, we have secured funding for over 16 months, to host a Work & Learn Coordinator that will be focused on the Marshall, Tracy and Minneota school districts,” Faris said. The bulk of the funding includes legislative CTE dollars the region received in 2019, she said.

Marshall High School Principal Brian Jones shared some of the ways that MPS could expand career and technical education at the high-school level.

“We can’t just stay put, so to speak, and continue to do what we’ve always done,” Jones said. Having a Work & Learn Coordinator would be a big help, he said. MHS also currently has a required career exploration class, and CTE opportunities in the agriculture, business and industrial technology departments. Additional programs include a career internship program, a partnership with Lakeview Schools for engineering education, and a new partnership with the Minnesota River Valley Education District for aviation careers.

“We know that we need to continue to look for opportunities for all students, particularly around some of those traditionally blue-collar types of fields,” Jones said.

In other business at Monday’s meeting, the school board went into a closed session to talk about considering allegations against an individual subject to the school board’s authority.

Superintendent Jeremy Williams said Monday that the closed session did concern a staff member, but he could not comment on the allegations or the staff member. Williams said MP S was not involved in any legal action in connection with the matter