U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, paid a visit to Napavine High School on Tuesday, April 22, to see the school's growing career and technical education (CTE) programs.
During the visit, Gluesenkamp Perez spoke with an eighth grade science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) class and a group of students involved in a new apprenticeship program before taking a look at some of the school’s CTE facilities.
The tour involved up-close looks at the school's shop area, which includes a classroom attached to spaces for metal working, STEM and woodshop. The congresswoman also visited the school’s greenhouse and new sand pit, which was installed at the beginning of the year as a space to instruct students on how to use a new tractor that the school recently purchased with grant funding.
These are just some of the facilities that Napavine High School uses as part of its career pathways programs, which cover many industries, including business fundamentals, commercial art, construction, culinary arts, digital photography, environmental science, global business communications, graphic design, healthy living and welding, which Napavine CTE Director David Rutherford says is one of the most popular.
During the visit, Gluesenkamp Perez spoke frequently on the importance of CTE and vocational education, highlighting the trades as a valuable way for young Americans to find a career and become economically independent.
“If you are a master mechanic or tradesman, you have power,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “I think shifting and getting back to our roots as a nation as makers, like that are self sufficient again, that's real power. This is power, knowing how to make stuff, to make what you want.”
Gluesenkamp Perez said part of the reason for her visit was wanting to see the talents and work from the younger people in the community and to see positive developments in the community that could serve as an example for more work in the future.
“I wanted to see what they've got going on, you know. And I also think it's really important that kids are, you know, respected for their talents and encouraged and that I'm hearing from them about what they're thinking about doing,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “It's so easy to find out about what's wrong … If you're just focused on what's wrong, like, it doesn't point you in the direction of what is good and what we should do more of. So, it's really fun to talk with these kids and hear what they're thinking about doing and what they're interested in.”
According to Rutherford, who has worked as the Napavine CTE director for six years, the school’s CTE programming has exploded in recent years. The school currently has 11 teachers teaching at least one CTE course. There used to be three. Rutherford's own position and another administrative position have also been added to help manage the growing subject.
“It has been a very positive way to put a CTE spin on some traditional classes and make them more real world,” Rutherford said. “I try to modernize and align programs to student needs and community needs. We have some dynamic teachers that are doing great things for our students. For a small school we are providing some exciting things.”
Rutherford said he invited Gluesenkamp Perez to visit the school after signing up for her team’s grant newsletter about a year ago. The congresswoman’s team reached out to Rutherford about two weeks ago and made an initial visit to the school. After that, her team reconnected, recommending grants the school could apply for and to plan a visit specifically to see the school’s agricultural mechanics program, which includes the school's new tractor and sand pit.
During the visit, Gluesenkamp Perez also took the chance to ask the school’s administration questions about potentially expanding their growing CTE programs to sixth graders.
Gluesenkamp Perez sent a letter to the Washington state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) urging the office to do just that and extend CTE programming to sixth graders in November of last year. She published a news release at the time stressing the importance of CTE courses for younger students. She echoed many of those ideas during her visit at the school, focusing on mental health and economic opportunity.
“Expanding the forms of intelligence we value and recognize in students is a critical tool for increasing self esteem and mental health outcomes,” Gluesenkamp Perez said in the November letter to OSPI. “After hearing from CTE teachers across my district, I believe it would benefit students to open CTE programming, including state Perkins dollars, to sixth graders. These are formative years as students survey their interests and the diverse career opportunities available to them. By exposing students to these skills and career pathways early, we can better prepare them for high school, post-secondary opportunities and good-paying jobs.”
Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a bill sponsored by Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, the same day, April 22, that allows schools to offer CTE courses to sixth graders.
Napavine’s administration said if they had their sixth graders in their middle school facilities, they would consider extending the programming to them, but that's currently unlikely, especially since the funding originally tied to the legislation was removed during its time in committee.
OSPI has said it plans to come back to the legislation in the future.
