CTE program asking for public feedback

CTE program asking for public feedback

West Shore School News is presented by West Shore Educational Service District in partnership with Mason County Press and Oceana County Press.

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief

VICTORY TOWNSHIP — When you think about Career and Technical Education what comes to your mind? The leaders of West Shore Educational Service District’s CTE program want to hear feedback from the public about its perception of the program through a survey.

“Historically, here at CTE we think there might be some misperceptions of what CTE is,” said Jamie Bandstra, principal/director of CTE and ASM Tech. “Often we hear from community members, students or parents that they think that CTE is for a certain type of student. We want to find out what the misperceptions are so we can know how to market effectively.”

The CTE program was established in 1989 by the Mason-Lake Intermediate School District (now consolidated into the West Shore ESD) and is funded by a millage paid by the property taxes in Mason, Lake, and Oceana counties. It is also available to students from Manistee County on a tuition basis.

About 500 students, high school juniors and seniors, participate in the program’s 13 vocational classes, which are mostly housed on the campus of West Shore Community College.

“Our location here at West Shore Community College is fantastic and we have a wonderful relationship with the college,” said Chad Riffle, CTE assistant principal. “But, we often hear from the public that many people think that this is a college program. That’s one of the areas that we want to address. Of course, we have a great partnership with WSCC and having the high school kids out on the college campus has many benefits. But, we want to learn how we can make sure the public understands that this is a high school program, funded and operated by the ESD.”

Bandstra said the survey’s purpose serves several purposes.

“Naturally we want to hear from the public,” Bandstra said. “But, we also want to find out from students and school personnel about how we can better serve them.”

Riffle said program officials are aware they need to provide more information to students early in their high school career so they make the right decisions when entering CTE.

“This is another purpose of the survey, to figure out how we can better assess the students,” Riffle said. “We are only able to enroll a certain amount of students, which means that not everyone can be in the program. When a student drops out of the program, it basically means that another student lost the opportunity to be in there instead. We want to make sure that we are able to put the students in the program that suits his or her needs appropriately.”

Bandstra said they are open to making changes based on the survey’s outcome.

“We know that our name alone can cause some confusion and this is something that we are taking a serious look at,” Bandstra said. “Do we need to rebrand our entire program? We are hoping to find out some of those things with this assessment.”

Programs offered by CTE include: Agriscience, Allied Health, Automotive Technology, Construction Trades, Criminal Justice, Culinary Arts, Digital Media, Educator Academy, Graphic Arts, Health Occupations, IT: Networking, Mechatronics, and Welding (the last two currently combined as a Design Fabricating and Welding pilot)

Click here to take the survey.

Support local news for $10 a month

We hope you enjoy reading Mason County Press and Oceana County Press. Our services are provided to you through the generous support of our advertisers. Traditional newspaper models require subscriptions or purchase of an individual newspaper in order to see their product. We do not, and will not, require our readers to pay a subscription. However, we have had many of our kind readers ask how they can support us if they were to make a monthly contribution. For those who would like to contribute, we are suggesting $10 a month.

This can be paid several ways:

The easiest way is to sign up for an automatic monthly payment on Paypal. Click this link.

Alternative methods:

• We can send you an invoice each month, which you can conveniently pay online or by check. If you are interested in this method, please email editor@mediagroup31.com and we can sign you up. You can also mail a yearly check for $120 to Media Group 31, PO Box 21, Scottville, MI 49454.
• We also accept Venmo payments.

We appreciate all our readers regardless of whether they chose to continue to access our service for free or with a monthly financial support.

This story and original photography are copyrighted © 2024, all rights reserved by Media Group 31, LLC, PO Box 21, Scottville, MI 49454. No portion of this story or images may be reproduced in any way, including print or broadcast, without expressed written consent.

As the services of Media Group 31, LLC are news services, the information posted within the sites are archivable for public record and historical posterity. For this reason it is the policy and practice of this company to not delete postings. It is the editor’s discretion to update or edit a story when/if new information becomes available. This may be done by editing the posted story or posting a new “follow-up” story. Media Group 31, LLC or any of its agents have the right to make any changes to this policy. Refer to Use Policy for more information.

Please consider helping to fund local news. Mason County Press and Oceana County Press are available for free thanks to the generous support of our advertisers and individuals. Three ways to help us: Venmo: @MasonCountyPress; Paypal: MasonCountyPress@gmail.com; Mail a check to PO BOX 21, Scottville, MI 49454.

fb.com/stars