Brian Moler

All incidents must be documented thoroughly, including note of contact of parents and others who need to be made aware. 

Doing "safety observations" is going to start being part of my regular routine.  I do weekly visits to every program, but have never made one of these a focus on safety.  This will benefit both me and the instructor to help assure a safe CTE facility. 

I really like the idea of having students do the "self-assessment" of how safe a project or work area is.  This not only forces them to do a good analysis of the present dangers, but also serves as a way for the instructor to asses their understanding of hazards.  The students may even point out something the instructor had overlooked.  

While each of our programs has a safety plan that includes OHSHA 10 training and set procedures, and we have a district wide safety plan, I'm not sure we have a Building Safety plan that outlines our processes of teaching safety.  I  want to develop a plan that will assist teachers in organizing the processes and assure we are following best practices and reviewing regularly.  

Using instructional practices like collaboration, and project based learning, teachers can be teaching skills that apply directly to the workplace.  

I need to be better at pointing out the behaviors our staff do that back our valued behaviors. 

We are battling the "vo-tech" stigma from our sending schools as we are a school for kids who cannot "cut it" academically.  We are actively working on changing our perception through marketing and recruitment to be seen as a destination students WANT to come to, versus some see us a place you get sent.  

We are needing to create a grades 7-12 vertical plan for Career Readiness that addresses the necessary competencies of Career Readiness and Career exploration.  This needs to be a systematic plan that guides students through their education that results in them feeling confidently prepared for the workforce. 

I think a strong CTE/Community engagement story for our center is our SkillsUSA crew working with a local non-profit which builds beds for needy families.  They say a direct need and worked with this organization to assist them by using their skills and helping our local families.  

I am working on our relationship with the local chamber of commerce and branching out to chamber in the town of our largest sending school as well.  There are a lot of potential partners in that town that are not tapped as resources for Career Center....yet.