Despite a recent $74 million renovation project that added 108,205 square feet to Carroll County’s Career and Technology Center, the center’s popularity means interested students are turned away every year.
The center, which opened in 1971, was designed for 380 students in 19 programs and currently educates about 800 students in 24 programs per semester. Superintendent Cynthia McCabe said in February that the renovation would improve the quality of existing programs, but will do little to raise the school’s capacity.
“That’s the difficult piece,” Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Nicholas Shockney said Wednesday at the Board of Education’s monthly meetin. “The great thing is, our programs are getting more and more attention, more and more popularity, more and more students are gravitating to them, but there’s a finite number of seats.”
A mathematical scoring determines which students are accepted into career and tech center programs, Shockney said, and it is unfortunate that some students must be turned away.
Director of Curriculum and Instruction Steve Wernick told the school board that a question was recently added to the career and tech application, asking students how they plan to apply skills developed in the program to their career.
“We know that our programs fill quickly,” Wernick said. “It’s one of the gems that we have in Carroll County, so we would love to find ways to grow our career and tech. We toss around ideas, but we’ll continue to take that feedback back and see what we can do to ensure that those students that are looking for a program are able to get in.”
During the meeting Wednesday, Board of Education Vice President Tara Battaglia said the system’s methods for selecting students to participate in often-competitive Career and Technology Center programs does a disservice to hands-on learners by prioritizing academics.
Battaglia believes that straight-A college-bound students use programs such as welding as a way to get out of school, which potentially takes a spot in the program away from an aspiring career welder, she said.
“It’s hard, and I know we have limited space, but we should be able to identify the kids who are the college kids that want to take those good college classes, and take that certification onward, versus the kids who need that trade,” Battaglia said.
Including an interview with a guidance counselor as a factor may seem like a good way to assess interest, McCabe said, but having a staff member make such a determination brings subjectivity into what is often an emotionally involved application process for children and families, as well as creating additional workload challenges.
“I fully agree with you that the we want to do the best job we can of making sure that the students who are who are going to most benefit from career and tech for their careers, get in,” McCabe said. “The process to get that done is a hairy process.”
Board of Education President Marsha Herbert said determining the best selection process is also complicated by nuance among students’ career paths, as some have turned skills from tech center programs into second jobs or side-hustles.
Battaglia asked if the system could offer fire and EMS programs, especially amid higher demand for those careers in Carroll after the county’s Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services was created in October 2020.
Wernick said there is no program for students interested in those careers that meets Maryland’s standards.
