Summer’s here and flying by quickly!

At the schools, we’re busy making preparations for this fall. We’re still excited about the new Career and Technical Institute and getting that site open and running. As with many things right now, the bids came in higher than we had expected and the availability of all the materials is going to delay completion a bit.

While we had initially hoped to open the center this fall, it is more likely going to be fall of 2023 before we begin our first classes at that location.

We know the importance of access to hands-on career prep courses and are committed to completing this project right over doing it quickly.

When complete, located on Highway 59 North, our CTI location will house both a medical careers lab where we will initially teach certified nursing assistant classes and have room to expand to other medical field preparatory courses in the future as well as a full shop space that will be equipped for advanced auto mechanics and autobody courses as well as a welding shop where advanced welding courses will help prepare students to enter a career in that field.

Our future plans are to expand into courses like HVAC, construction, and plumbing and/or electrical.

The need for employees in skilled trades fields is big and we feel that by offering more classes like this at the high school level we can help more students turn an interest into a future career. Our mission is to educate, support, and prepare, all learners for success.

What that success looks like for each student is different. For some students, success after high school is going on to a four-year college or university or even more advanced education. For other students, success is training in a trade and finding employment.

We take our mission seriously, and know that the only way to meet that for all students is to offer a wide variety of classes and to connect all students with options to consider for life after high school.

Our staff does a great job of helping make those connections, and we’re very excited to expand our course offerings to connect even more students to these options.

We also know that the only way this expanded CTE programming will be successful is by partnering with our local business owners; they know their field and what success looks like for someone entering it. Those local business connections can mean classroom guest speakers, site visits, job shadow opportunities, internships, and mentors for our students who are deciding where they want to go after they complete high school.

Of course, we would love to see them stay in the Marshall area. That happens most often when our students are aware of all the opportunities that exist right here.

I know I’m very excited to see what this project leads to.

— Jeremy Williams is Marshall Public Schools superintendent