Wawasee Rebrands Career And Technical Center To ‘Pathways’

November 9, 2016 at 6:35 p.m.

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SYRACUSE – Tuesday at the Wawasee School Board meeting, Director of Personnel and Legal Services James Flecker brought to the board the need for the approval of the rebranding of Wawasee Area Career and Technical Cooperative to simply Pathways.
Pathways will be the collaboration of several schools in the area to get students the jobs they need directly after high school.
“One thing that we wanna do here at Wawasee Community Schools is make sure that when students graduate and they are not going to college afterward, that they’re going to get a career and job that is going to pay them (good) money,” said Flecker.
The name of the Wawasee entity will stay in effect, but the cooperative of schools will be rebranded as Pathways.
In December, area businesses will go to Wawasee to critique the program in order to figure out what new programs need to be launched in order to effectively prepare students for the workforce. More information regarding this rebrand of the program will come at the December meeting.
In the “good news” report, Wawasee Superintendent Dr. Tom Edington had several items.
Certificates of merit were given to Gynnae Hochstetler, Kayla and Leeann Estrada for their accomplishments at the National Junior Horticulture Association convention in Erie, Pa. The girls took first place in the FFA team division, as well as placing first (Leeann), third (Kayla) and fourth (Hochstetler) in the FFA individual.
Wawasee Middle School will host its annual Lego League Robotics Tournament Nov. 19. There is currently a need for volunteers for the event.
Syracuse Elementary School accepted a $1,300 anonymous monetary donation to be used for digital programs.
The Wawasee Middle School Builders Club was recognized as a 2015-2016 distinguished club by the Kiwanis Service Leadership Programs. The award was given after the club almost tripled their community service.
The student learning report from Assistant Superintendent Joy Goshert included an update on the school’s initiative update, which is a partnership with Five-Star Technology Solutions in order to develop a plan that explores the school’s relationship with technology. The end result is to put together a professional development plan for administrators, instructional coaches and teachers to make technology an integral part of the way of life at Wawasee.
The school board heard the initial findings from Wawasee are promising. Work is needed in order to get to the overall goal, but the school is not starting at the bottom. Of the four levels of proficiency to be rated in, Wawasee was rated in the third level from the get-go.
“I think for us to be where we are right now really says a lot for our building administrators or those technology coaches who really worked hard last spring to put together SMART start ... I think that speaks highly of the work they’ve done so far.” said Goshert.
The school plans to purchase four buses and sell three older ones. Typically, the school would consider five buses to purchase, but this year they are only looking at purchasing two 46-passenger transit buses, one 78-passenger yellow bus and one wheelchair bus. Then, there are three older buses the school is looking to sell. Due to the elimination of two routes, the school no longer needs as many spares as they did in the past.

SYRACUSE – Tuesday at the Wawasee School Board meeting, Director of Personnel and Legal Services James Flecker brought to the board the need for the approval of the rebranding of Wawasee Area Career and Technical Cooperative to simply Pathways.
Pathways will be the collaboration of several schools in the area to get students the jobs they need directly after high school.
“One thing that we wanna do here at Wawasee Community Schools is make sure that when students graduate and they are not going to college afterward, that they’re going to get a career and job that is going to pay them (good) money,” said Flecker.
The name of the Wawasee entity will stay in effect, but the cooperative of schools will be rebranded as Pathways.
In December, area businesses will go to Wawasee to critique the program in order to figure out what new programs need to be launched in order to effectively prepare students for the workforce. More information regarding this rebrand of the program will come at the December meeting.
In the “good news” report, Wawasee Superintendent Dr. Tom Edington had several items.
Certificates of merit were given to Gynnae Hochstetler, Kayla and Leeann Estrada for their accomplishments at the National Junior Horticulture Association convention in Erie, Pa. The girls took first place in the FFA team division, as well as placing first (Leeann), third (Kayla) and fourth (Hochstetler) in the FFA individual.
Wawasee Middle School will host its annual Lego League Robotics Tournament Nov. 19. There is currently a need for volunteers for the event.
Syracuse Elementary School accepted a $1,300 anonymous monetary donation to be used for digital programs.
The Wawasee Middle School Builders Club was recognized as a 2015-2016 distinguished club by the Kiwanis Service Leadership Programs. The award was given after the club almost tripled their community service.
The student learning report from Assistant Superintendent Joy Goshert included an update on the school’s initiative update, which is a partnership with Five-Star Technology Solutions in order to develop a plan that explores the school’s relationship with technology. The end result is to put together a professional development plan for administrators, instructional coaches and teachers to make technology an integral part of the way of life at Wawasee.
The school board heard the initial findings from Wawasee are promising. Work is needed in order to get to the overall goal, but the school is not starting at the bottom. Of the four levels of proficiency to be rated in, Wawasee was rated in the third level from the get-go.
“I think for us to be where we are right now really says a lot for our building administrators or those technology coaches who really worked hard last spring to put together SMART start ... I think that speaks highly of the work they’ve done so far.” said Goshert.
The school plans to purchase four buses and sell three older ones. Typically, the school would consider five buses to purchase, but this year they are only looking at purchasing two 46-passenger transit buses, one 78-passenger yellow bus and one wheelchair bus. Then, there are three older buses the school is looking to sell. Due to the elimination of two routes, the school no longer needs as many spares as they did in the past.
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