CTE Foundation’s partnership with Sonoma Clean Power, Switch Electric Vehicles, and the Sonoma County Office of Education, has captured the attention of The Press Democrat. In a competitive grant process, CTE Foundation recently approved the applications of four local schools who will soon offer the Switch Lab Kit as a course for its students.

The course provides materials and curriculum for students to build a street-legal electric vehicle and gain knowledge and skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Students will be exposed to concepts in Electricity, Alternative Fuels, Manufacturing, Science, Automotive Technology, Clean Energy Generation, while also working through Common Core requirements.

In this article, reporter Jeremy Hay talks to the people who make the program possible.

American Ag Credit, Big John’s Market, Gardenworks Inc., Hotel Healdsburg, Kaiser Permanente, Redwood Credit Union, the Soiland Family Fund and Herb/Jane Dwight.

Goals for the coming year include continuing to invest in the expansion of high-quality, new CTE programs at the high school level and developing regional training programs in such industry areas as manufacturing, health care, and construction training.  The regional training approach will provide the necessary course work at the high school level and matriculate to the JC to help fill the pipeline of trained workers for key industry segments of Sonoma County.

Over the two years of granting, a total of ten new CTE programs/courses have been added in the County through six different school districts (seven high schools) largely focused on hands-on learning programs in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).  In addition to the STEM programs, also funded are two programs in Agriculture/Culinary and include a first of it’s kind Farm to Table program at Healdsburg High School and a new Plant and Soil Science course at Sonoma Valley High School.  Additional programs were funded at the middle school level offering career exploration opportunities to as many as 1,950 students countywide through the Sonoma County Office of Education.

Additional donations are being sought to further enhance the Fund. “We believe it’s imperative to provide multi-year investments within the education system to support workforce development and economic stability for Sonoma County.  Through our support, the CTE Fund is helping to drive systemic change and create large impacts for schools county-wide,” says Lisa Wittke Schaffner, Executive Director, The John Jordan Foundation.

 For more information regarding the CTE Fund, the grant process and/or if you are interested in supporting the Fund, contact Kathy Goodacre, Executive Director, kgoodacre@ctesonomacounty.org or by calling (707) 537-1679.

Construction/Green Business, Health Care, Sonoma Wine/Agriculture/Tourism, and Professional and Innovation Services.  “More than seventy percent of students who graduate from Sonoma County public high schools are not eligible to enter a California four-year university or college, “ states Sonoma County Supervisor, Mike McGuire. “Providing quality education, job skills and career training are vital to the success of the Sonoma County economy. The CTE Fund is making hundreds of student’s futures brighter by linking public andprivate dollars to work force development which will help make our communities thrive in the years to come.”

Over the two years of granting, a total of ten new CTE programs/courses have been added in the County through six different school districts (seven high schools) largely focused on hands-on learning programs in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).  In addition to the STEM programs, also funded are two programs in Agriculture/Culinary and include a first of it’s kind Farm to Table program at Healdsburg High School and a new Plant and Soil Science course at Sonoma Valley High School.  Additional programs were funded at the middle school level offering career exploration opportunities to as many as 1,950 students countywide through the Sonoma County Office of Education.  (See attached outline of schools and programs approved for grants in 2014/15.)  

Additional donations are being sought to further enhance the Fund. “We believe it’s imperative to provide multi-year investments within the education system to support workforce development and economic stability for Sonoma County.  Through our support, the CTE Fund is helping to drive systemic change and create large impacts for schools county-wide,” says Lisa Wittke Schaffner, Executive Director, The John Jordan Foundation.

For more information regarding the CTE Fund, the grant process and/or if you are interested in supporting the Fund, contact Kathy Goodacre, Executive Director, kgoodacre@ctesonomacounty.org or by calling (707) 537-1679.

The following school district CTE programs have been selected:

Healdsburg Unified School District – Farm to Table Course. This grant would provide additional funding for staff and to integrate CTE curriculum and offer a Farm to Table course co-taught by two CTE teachers in the areas of Culinary Arts and Agriculture.

Petaluma Joint Union High School District – Engineering Technology. The High School seeks to attract students to their Industrial Technology program who are capable of high-level theoretical academic work and who are interested in STEM areas such as engineering technology. The funding will cover the teacher, textbooks and other instructional materials as well as a supply budget for the course.

Santa Rosa City High School District – CTE Project Make-Applied Lab Implementation. This grant will allow for Santa Rosa City Schools to expand upon its Linked Learning initiatives by providing funding for the implementation of a CTE Project Make – Applied Lab to be linked with an already existing core Physics Course at Piner High School.

Sonoma Valley Unified School District – Engineering Design and Technology Linked Learning
Pathway. The High School offers an Engineering, Design and Technology linked learning pathway elective, Introduction to Engineering and will add Principles of Engineering course next Fall (2013). This funding will support both electives courses and related expenses associated with Work-based Learning – including internships, externships, transportation and other related expense West Sonoma County Unified High School District – Project Make. Project Make is an innovative, hands on curriculum where student explore and create project-based activities to foster their ingenuity. This 21st century learning course is designed to allow students opportunities to build, design, and develop ideas from conception to developmental planning stages to finished product. This class has been featured on CNN as a modern day shop class for students and enhances student’s interest in science and math.

Windsor Unified School District – STEM CTE Course and Establishment of a Regional MESA Program. This grant application has TWO interrelated areas of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) focus: 1) To fund the CTE STEM course created by Project Lead the Way called Principles of Engineering and Design, which will be taught in the Windsor High AXIS STEM ACADEMY for 10th, 11th, & 12th Graders. 2) To establish a North County Regional MESA Program (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) which participates in local and national MESA competitions. The CTE fund Advisory Committee plans to raise an additional $140,000 this year with hopes of raising $500,000 a year within the next five years. The funding cycle begins in January of each year with requests for proposals going out to area high schools with grants awarded the following July to prepare for program implementation in the fall.