MCTEC teachers to Board of Education: we need full-time help

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January 27, 2012

Matt Christian Princeton Times The Zope Gazette Fri Jan 27, 2012, 09:25 AM EST

Princeton — As the Mercer County Technical Education Center pursues new programs and an expanded curriculum, educators there are calling on the Mercer County Board of Education for some full-time help.

Tuesday, MCTEC’s teachers presented the Board of Education with a report on the Innovation Zone Grant that allows technical education students to receive embedded credits for courses taken at the tech center.

The purpose of the presentation was two-fold: The teachers wished to provide the board with information on how the students were taking advantage of the embedded credits option; and the teachers encouraged the board to make the educators assigned to assist the students with the credits full-time employees.

The teachers of the program are Toni O’Saile, who teaches English; Kristin Wilburn, who teaches technology; and Cindy Grant, who teaches math.

Dr. Stephen Akers, director of the GED Option program and Technical High School coordinator, said, “This presentation will be from the Tech Center. We’re trying to encourage the board to further commit to the Innovation Zone Grant by making these three ladies full-time. They need to further commit to this program to make it work.”

First to speak were several MCTEC teachers, who all agreed that the three embedded-credit specialists made their lives easier and that they couldn’t perform the instruction of math, English and technology, as well as O’Saile, Wilburn and Grant could.

Linda Cox, principal of the MCTEC center also spoke, “I’d like to thank the board for giving us the approval to do the Innovation Zone Grant. Some people ask me when I’m going to retire, but there are too many wonderful things happening to consider leaving. Definitely the completers [the students that complete all the courses in a particular discipline] have increased.”

In 2010, before the embedded-credits program was enacted, 78 percent of the students were certified in their fields, with 48 percent earning the desired gold or silver standards. In 2011, 97 percent of the students earned certification, and 79 percent earned gold or silver certifications.

Board President Greg Prudich said, “The progress that you all have made in such a short time is remarkable. When we were here talking about the Innovation Zone Grant, I thought it would be about 10 years before we saw these kinds of results.”

Akers said, “This program will never work if you have a revolving door of teachers. If we were to expand the programs that we offer, there’s no reason why we couldn’t expand the embedded credits that we offer.”

The board will continue mulling whether the three teachers in question should become full-time MCTEC employees.

Wednesday, Kellan Sarles, the director of Information Systems, said, “The board hasn’t made a decision yet. What they will do, they will take that into consideration now that they are determining what our staffing needs are for next year.”

— Contact Matt Christian at mchristian@ptonline.net

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MCTEC teachers to Board of Education: we need full-time help

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