Northeast Business Partnership Members 2004-2005

(Red indicates members present for February 4, 2005 meeting)

 

 

 

Group	School System	CTE Director	Business Representative	Business/Industry
1	Nash-Rocky Mount	Jane Brooks (Debra Allen)	Doneva Chavis	First Media Radio
	Edgecombe	Margaret Hendricks	Winston Howell	Edgecombe Martin EMC
	Wilson	Isabel Fulghum	Mike Cianos	Cummins Atlantic, Inc.
	Pitt	Nancy Spainhour	William (Bill) Brown	Brown and Wood, Inc.
			Nettie Evans	PCMH/University Health Systems
			Lindsey Griffin	L. R. Griffin and Associates, Inc.
			Jimmy Hite	Hite Associates PC
			Susanne Sartelle	Chamber of Commerce
			Frances Faust	Chamber of Commerce
2	Halifax	Charles Chambliss	Mark D. Barnes	Safelite Glass Corp.
	Weldon	Kelvin Edwards (Linda Wiggins)
	Roanoke Rapids	Peggy Howard	Lela M. Bryan	Roanoke Valley Chamber of Commerce
	Northampton	Geneva Squire (Angie Merritt)	William Hall	NAPA Auto Parts
			Stanley King	Roanoke Economic Development Construction Industry
3	Hertford	Brenda Tinkham	William (Bill) Early	Hertford Co. Ec. Dev. Comm.
			James Eure	NC State Employees’ Cr. Union
			Anita Johnson	Nucor Steel—Hertford County
			Vernice Moore	Wal-Mart--Ahoskie
			Wendy Ruffin-Barnes	State Farm Ins. & Financial Ser.
	Gates	Connie Burgess	Marsha Langston	Marsha’s House of Flowers
	Bertie	Bobby Occena	Claire Mills	Bertie Memorial Hospital
	Martin	David Jenkins	Vickie Coleman	Martin General Hospital
4	Edenton-Chowan	Rob Boyce	Richard Bunch	Chamber of Commerce
			Brenda Spruill	Chamber of Commerce
			Win Dale	Colonial Communications--Alltel
	Perquimans	Sandy Meads	Cathy Johnson	Brian Center
	E. City-Pasquotank	Craig Laughton	Doris Creps	ARSC-US Coast Guard
			Rhonda Twiddy	Chamber of Commerce
	Camden	Ron Melchiorre
	Currituck	Bo Callison	Willow J. Winterling	Chamber of Commerce
5	Washington	Jerry Byrum	Rick Harrell	Perdue Farms, Inc.
	Tyrrell	Nelson Smith (Lynn West)	Lloyd W. Pledger, Jr.	Pledger Auto Parts, Inc. (NAPA)
	Beaufort	Judy Tunstall	Brenda Davis	Washington Crab and Seafood
	Hyde	Karen Carawan
	Dare	Kathey Lamm	Skipper Hines	East Carolina Bank
RC	Northeast Region	Cheryl Rice
		Mary Jo Wilson

 

 

 

 

Northeast Region Career-Technical Education

Business-Education Partnership

Minutes of February 4, 2005 Meeting

 

 

The NE CTE Business-Education Partnership held its first meeting of the 2004-05 school year on Friday, February 4, 2005 at the Holiday Inn in Williamston, NC.  (The meeting was rescheduled from January 21, 2005 because of bad weather.)  Thirty members attended.  (12 business partners and 18 educators)

 

Cheryl Rice, NE CTE Regional Coordinator welcomed everyone and shared a brief overview of meetings and events that have been on-going in the state and region, including the North Carolina Business Symposium in 2000, and a regional forum held in Williamston in 2003.

 

Cheryl shared seven major findings and recommendations that emerged from the six regional symposia conducted in 2003:

 

1. The symposia were highly representative of educators and business and industry within the state.
2. Opinions expressed in the symposia varied both by group membership and by region.
3. There is a need for continuous education beyond high school.
4. All participants seem to be affected in one way or another (positively or negatively, directly or indirectly) by non-native immigration to North Carolina.
5. Follow-up surveys of students and employers, “benchmarking” of critical economic indicators, and monitoring of student post-secondary remediation rates should measure accountability for CTE.
6. There is support for creating and maintaining business-education advocacy groups that address CTE issues on a regional basis.
7. There is a strong support for marketing the benefits of CTE.

 

Rice identified three objectives for the day’s meeting:

 

1. To identify issues and problems facing CTE and economic development in the NE.
2. To identify partnership efforts already underway in the NE.
3. To identify strategies for expanding partnership efforts in the NE.

 

Mary Jo Wilson, Director of the Performance Acceleration Academy for CTE in North Carolina, shared highlights and activities from other regions of the state.  She indicated that the Central and Southwest Regions are very active and have met several times already.  The Southeast Region began organizational efforts in December, and the West and Northwest Regions will be organizing this spring, along with the Northeast Region.

 

She also shared information on another statewide symposium being planned for March 22, 2005 in Greensboro.  Business partners across the state will be selected to attend.

 

In an effort to familiarize the group with the uniqueness of the Northeast Region, Rice divided the participants into five groups and discussed each group in terms of Location/Geographic Factors, Economy Status/Trends, and Business-Industry-Agriculture Mix.

 

Each group was then asked to focus on the following questions:

 

1. What problems are you facing in CTE in your part of the region?
2. How can business and industry help you?
3. What initiatives do you already have in place?
4. What can you do to market CTE in your area?

 

After a short break, the groups shared their responses.  Following is a list of their comments.

 

 

1.  What problems are you facing in CTE in your part of the region?

• Providing an environment to link education with application in the workplace.
• Opportunities to structure experiences to make them more meaningful.
• Attracting students into CTE programs and getting them to select a focus (many parents still wanting their children to pursue a four-year degree)
• Many school boards are pushing for a four-year degree
• High teacher turnover
• Finding qualified teachers
• Not able to attract/recruit good teachers due to competition with larger systems
• Loss of quality instructors to retirement
• Low test scores
• Lack of job possibilities
• Low paying jobs (small companies)
• Shortage of Months of Employment and funding issues
• Funding $$$$$$
• CTE is not a priority for President Bush
• Keeping up with technology
• Offering quality programs to all schools
• Facilities
• Transportation
• Class enrollment limits type of classes we can offer in some schools
• Limited business participation
• Leadership (or lack of!)
• Unemployment
• Drop-out rate
•  

2.  How can business and industry help you?

• Partners in Education
• Business Alliances
• Help market CTE to students and parents
• Serve as advocates for CTE
• Become politically active (for CTE)
• Career Fairs
• Field Trips
• Mentoring
• Job shadowing
• Internships
• Co-op experiences
• Apprenticeships
• Speaker’s Bureau
• Adopting schools
• Advisory committees (especially for new academies)
• Grants
• Donate equipment
• Summer Institutes for teachers
• Share business expertise, knowledge, and time
• Establish training centers (Boat Builder’s Center)

 

3.  What initiatives do you already have in place?

• Academies
• Apprenticeship programs
• Advisory committees
• Close working relationships with the local Chamber of Commerce
• Education After Hours (through the Chamber)
• Business tours for educators
• Learn and Earn
• Increased articulation with community colleges
• College Tech Prep programs
• Early College, dual enrollment, college transfer program
• Middle College programs
• High Schools That Work initiatives
• Active (local) Business Education Partnerships
• Bi-County Career Fair
• JobLink Career Centers
• Interview Day
• Ground Hog Day for job shadowing
• Career Days
• Pathways for Career Success
• Senior projects
• Summer internships for teachers
• NATEF Certification (for Automotive Technology program)

 

4.  What can you do to market CTE in your area?

• Education Summits
• Involvement with Chamber of Commerce to bring business and education together
• Market Health Academies through local hospitals
• Develop a “themed campaign” for all schools to use
• Educate parents to job realities and the cost of college (loans vs. employability)
• Use newspaper, local TV, school journalism classes
• Use local cable information channel
• Design and distribute placemats in restaurants (to promote CTE)
• Develop CTE bulletins, flyers, newspapers (or inserts)
• Monthly Board of Education spotlight on CTE
• Establish a website
• End of year banquets for businesses, interns, apprentices, CTSOs, etc.
• Distribute promotional material to business community
• Do more to market to parents (and students)
• Establish CTE scholarships
• Speak to various civic organizations
• Regular newspaper articles (success stories)
• Share materials/statistics with parents and the public
• Highlighting personal profiles of successful people in local media
• Need to involve more parents

 

The enthusiasm of the group led to a lot of discussion.  It was suggested that the members who were present today try to meet again as soon as possible to allow the business representatives some time to talk about how CTE can help them as well.

 

The Regional Coordinator will compile the information from each group and share it with all members through an e-group.  A follow-up meeting will be scheduled as soon as possible.  (probably in March or April)

 

Comments from the business representatives:

 

• Great opportunity to share ideas.  Look forward to the next session.  David Jenkins is an excellent advocate for CTE.  I appreciate his on-going support with “growing our own” in Martin County, specifically as it relates to health careers by participating on the MGH Workforce Development Council.  Linda Williford and Kelly Andrews have been extremely instrumental in developing the apprentice program at MGH.  Thank you!
• I think a full marketing plan needs to be developed    (locally and statewide) to first educate parents and industry leaders.  Second part of plan should be to get students excited, educated and involved.  Marketing should include television, radio, newspapers, internet, and direct mail.
• Good discussion!  Discussion prompts ideas, and lays groundwork for local enhancements!
• First meeting that I’ve attended.  I learned a lot and enjoyed the meeting.
• Could have used more time for discussion with focus groups.  Not enough time for business feedback.  Extend meeting time to allow more time or have bi-annual meetings.
• Enjoyed the meeting.  I know we will be working together in the future!
• I believe in public education!  I’ll be glad to help anyway I can.

 

Comments from the education representatives:

• Successful meeting.  Share experience was good—collaboration was great with this group.
• Great job Cheryl and Mary Jo!
• Cheryl Rice’s opening presentation was well organized and excellent!  Discussions were productive.  We ran out of time and did not get to discuss problems in business and ways CTE can help them.
• Very informative.  Schedule another business partnership meeting ASAP!
• It went well—Great!
• Very good meeting!
• Good session!  Thanks!