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Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Business partnerships key to making college and career pathways successful in Cedar Rapids schools
New centers would allow students to ‘find their passions’
Jul. 14, 2024 5:30 am, Updated: Jul. 15, 2024 7:41 am
CEDAR RAPIDS — Engineering, construction, agriculture and health sciences are just a few of the possible career pathways — expected to better prepare students for life after high school — being created in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.
The proposed pathways consider workforce shortages in the region and how to align students with high-demand, high-skill and high-paying jobs. As the school district finalizes its plan, business partnerships will become increasingly important to offer industry expertise, financial support and donation of industry-grade equipment.
“We’re solving the needs of our kids. This is about improving student engagement by providing kids rigorous, relevant experiences grounded in really high expectations. They’re going to be able to connect school to what they want to do afterward,” said Adam Zimmermann, executive director of innovation for the Cedar Rapids Community School District.
The school district is expected to present a draft of possible college and career academies to business partners later this month. A draft of the programs already has been presented to principals and educators at Cedar Rapids high schools, and before that was under consideration by a volunteer committee.
The academies and pathways and their descriptions will be presented to the Cedar Rapids school board later this year for final approval.
“This project is not to create workers. It’s to expose kids to what’s possible in Cedar Rapids and allow them to find their passions,” Zimmermann said. “We can’t do that without providing really quality experiences for our kids.”
The addition of college and career academies to Cedar Rapids high schools — starting with freshman academies launching in fall 2025 — will bring real-world experience to classrooms that align with students’ career interests, Zimmermann said.
The following year — the 2026-27 school year — the district will launch academies for sophomores, juniors and seniors at the schools. The academies will be small and supportive learning environments contained within a larger high school setting.
The high schools — Kennedy, Jefferson and Washington — will offer different academies and pathways for students to explore and gain experience to determine if it’s the career field for them.
Many of the details of this plan still are being decided with the input of students, educators and the business community and local colleges and universities. Some of those details include deciding what happens when students choose a career interest that’s not offered at their home high school, or how students can move to a different academy if they change their mind about their career interest.
By eighth and ninth grade, students in Cedar Rapids schools will take classes designed to expose them to what careers are possible. After that, they can choose to engage in a pathway or academy that helps them home in on a career, Zimmermann said.
“We want to provide kids options and be a choice-based system,” Zimmermann said. This includes providing kids “on and off ramps” to explore different paths and decide what’s right for them, he said.
The academies and pathways also will require infrastructure to support each program. The district has budgeted $30 million from the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy and an additional $30 million from Secure An Advanced Vision for Education for renovations to the high schools.
PPEL is an existing capital projects fund for the purchase and improvement of grounds, construction and remodeling of buildings, major equipment purchases including technology. The property tax levy, which expires in 2025, must be renewed by district voters every 10 years. The ballot question will appear in a September election. If approved, an extension would not raise the existing PPEL tax rate.
SAVE is an existing statewide sales tax to support schools capital projects.
The school district also is eyeing taking a bond referendum to district voters in November 2025. School officials currently are working to create a new plan to address facility needs and support academic programs after voters rejected a bond referendum last fall.
Building business partnerships
The Waterloo Community School District launched its own center in 2016 called the Waterloo Career Center where students can explore careers and gain real-life experience. Leaders in the Cedar Rapids district are looking to Waterloo schools as a model for starting a local programs.
Jeff Frost, executive director of professional technical education at Waterloo schools, said Waterloo schools graduates have a better idea of what life after high school would look like — whether it’s going into the workforce or an apprenticeship or pursuing a two- or four-year degree.
The Cedar Rapids school district “will give students a much better opportunity and be better prepared for the future” by creating college and career pathways now, Frost said.
Frost said Waterloo area businesses initially were unsure in their commitment to that district’s program. Today, “They’re coming to us and saying, ‘How do we get on board? Where are your needs?’ It’s tremendous. They see our kids as future workers, but they also know what we’re doing is good for the community,” he said.
Cedar Rapids also will have “a lot of support from business partners once they understand it,” Frost said.
Traditional industrial arts classes that taught carpentry, electrical, masonry or even welding 30 years ago don’t meet the needs of students and businesses of the 21st century, Frost said.
“A lot of jobs today are going to look a lot different 10 years from now,” Frost said. “The world of work is going to look a lot different. We need workers who are able to adjust to that and hit the ground running.”
Lori Weih, director of community engagement at UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, said the college and career pathways in Cedar Rapids have “great potential” to positively impact local businesses.
Already, there are more than 20 students apprenticing as patient care technicians and nursing assistants at St. Luke’s from Eastern Iowa high schools through the Grant Wood Area Education Agency, which provides educational services to schools and educators in seven Iowa counties.
As the Cedar Rapids school district develops a medical and health sciences pathway, Weih said the hospital can provide expertise and mentoring to students in addition to paid apprenticeship opportunities.
The medical and health sciences pathway could encompass nursing, biomedical research, biomedical engineering, medical laboratory technicians and forensics. There also could be opportunities within the hospital for students interested in other fields like business and finance, Weih said.
“Almost anything you can do outside of health care, you can do in health care,” Weih said.
Invision Architects in Waterloo — which was hired to renovate and build additions to Jefferson and Washington high schools for the college and career programs — partners with Waterloo Career Center by hiring student interns and giving them real-life experience.
Brad Leeper, a partner and architect at Invision Architects, said Waterloo students are challenged to take on projects like designing a green space at the new Cedar Falls High School, which Invision Architects designed. Students learned about biophilic design and how plants can impact learning, priced the plants and picked them out and designed where it would go in the school, Leeper said.
“Teachers are doing great work with kids, but some need a different way to be engaged. We’ve known for a long time that people learn by doing, and these programs are about that,” he said.
Teaching the pathways
Cedar Rapids’ Zimmermann said attracting industry professionals to teach in the academies and pathways will be important.
Stephanie Neff is one of those industry professionals who left her position as the health and wellness supervisor in the Cedar Rapids school district to teach instead.
Neff now teaches Kirkwood Community College health science classes at Washington High School. Since starting teaching on a conditional license, she’ll have three years to earn a teaching license, which she will be doing online through the University of Northern Iowa, she said.
“The big thing that excites me about academies and pathways is students will have the opportunity to explore careers before they have to pay for it on their own,” Neff said. “Plenty of kids go through my classes and say, ‘This is not what I want to do.’ Great. Figure that out now.”
The Cedar Rapids Community Schools Foundation has an annual $50,000 Professional Development Fund educators can apply for to fund their continuing education, whether it’s getting a teaching license or an endorsement in teaching a trade or any other skills, said Karen Swanson, executive director of the foundation.
“We need more teachers, and we have to come alongside the district and provide the funding to make that happen,” Swanson said.
The creation of college and career academies and pathways in Cedar Rapids high schools will add consistency to programs, so students and families know what their options are, Neff said.
“Right now as a teacher, I do a lot of scrambling to inform and recruit students about the classes I offer. If families and students know what those offerings are through the academies and pathways, it gives them a better sense of how they can plan their high school experience,” Neff said.
Jim Schwiebert worked as a mechanic before going into teaching in his late 30s. Today, he teaches automotive technology at Jefferson High School. He’s looking forward to expanding the program under the college and career academies and pathways.
Business partners already have generously donated funds and tools to support his classroom, Schwiebert said.
“We need to do what’s right for the students,” he said. “I think we’re finally getting things right as an educational system. We give kids knowledge to go into high-needs fields such as automotive, HVAC or welding and also maintain the regular infrastructure to support students going to get a four-year degree.”
Scott Corell teaches advanced manufacturing and welding to high school students at Kirkwood Community College’s Linn County Regional Center in Hiawatha.
“We don’t just work on welding and machining. We’re trying to introduce a lot of life skills and build confidence,” he said.
But being off campus from the high schools can be a barrier for some students interested in the program, he said.
Launching college and career academies at Cedar Rapids high schools is “well-aligned with the work we’ve been doing for years,” said Mindy Thornton, director of Kirkwood’s Linn County Regional Center.
Access to these type of courses is important because students who complete college credit while in high school are more likely to graduate from college and with less debt, Thornton said.
“In the coming years, we’ll see an increase at every high school with high school faculty teaching college credit classes within the walls of the high school,” Thornton said.
Iowa Ideas In-Depth Week Explores College and Career Learning in Iowa
Iowa Ideas, a project of The Gazette, is hosting a free, virtual In-Depth Week series called College and Career Learning, July 15-19. It’s an exploration of what it takes to build successful college and career pathways.
The week features five sessions, held 12-1 p.m. each day. Full session descriptions, including a list of panelists and registration, can be found at iowaideas.com/in-depth/collegecareer2024. Here is the week’s schedule:
• Monday: What is college and career learning and why is it becoming increasingly popular in K-12 education?
• Tuesday: Building business and community partnerships
• Wednesday: Making the space
• Thursday: Teaching college and career learning
• Friday: Exploring your pathway
Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com
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