Meeting the needs of Homewood-Flossmoor High School’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program will now be the responsibility of two people. The District 233 school board agreed to share responsibilities by creating a department lead position.
At a special meeting of the board on Friday, July 18, the board unanimously approved a CTE department lead (formerly a chairperson). Superintendent Jennifer Norrell said every other department had a lead and CTE was deserving of the same recognition.
The person will report to Asa Gordon who was named in June as the new director of Career Pathways and Workforce Development. The board also, on July 18, agreed to change Gordon’s title to director of College and Career Pathways as he takes on additional responsibility for collegiate programming.
CTE includes manufacturing, with courses in automotive, welding and woodworking; pre-engineering; fashion design; culinary; business; and business technology. H-F anticipates starting a health care component in the near future.
Norrell said data made her realize that “we need to really put an emphasis of equal value on college readiness as we do on career readiness. We do have college counselors, we also have several professionals in our programs, but as we look to expand IB (International Baccalaureate) to include IB-CTE“ plus the requirements from the state of Illinois on careers, “we need more oversight and more leadership.”
The superintendent noted the constant turnover in the CTE director’s position, now called College and Career Pathways. Gordon is the fifth director in five years.
“When you think about adding additional responsibility on a position that’s had a lot of turnover, as part of that I believe it’s because the position is just too vast and too broad,” she said.
“If you’re trying to be a department head and do the day-to-day things for your department to run efficiently and a diverse department, and simultaneously expected to do all of the workforce readiness, all the CTE, all the programs and departments with partnerships with higher ed and now we have to do pathways for every kid and we’re going to do IB-CTE, we’re setting ourselves up for failure,” Norrell said.
Splitting the job between Gordon and the department lead will make it easier to accomplish all that’s expected of CTE, she said. She hopes to present the new department lead for the board’s approval at the Aug. 19 board meeting.
The board also agreed to spend a maximum $150,000 to convert three science classrooms into a suite for the special education staff located in the South Building. The classrooms were available now that the new science addition is open. The rooms are adjacent to the special education offices and will provide a conference room and other spaces. The work should be completed in September.
