T.E.C.O. - Osceola School District

October 2010
Volume 3, Issue 1
Career & Technical Education ~ 817 Bill Beck Blvd., Kiss., FL 34744
www.cte.osceola.k12.fl.us
New Programs at TECO Serve Adults With Disabilities
Four new programs are now being offered in the evening at TECO to Adults with Special Needs. The Career and Skills Enrichment
(C.A.S.E) Program trains these students in the areas of Culinary Arts, Automotive Technology, Pet Grooming and Commercial Sewing
Services. The programs are 300 to 400 hours in length and focus on job skill development and integrating basic Reading, Math and
Writing skills.
The Culinary students are trained
to become Prep Chefs. A buffet is
available in the culinary dining
room where the students have
prepared the food.
Students in the Automotive area are trained in Auto Detailing and Basic Auto Maintenance.
The Pet Grooming program offers instruction in pet handling, bathing,
shearing, ear cleansing and nail clipping. All of the programs are open to
serving the community through services provided during the training
experience. A nominal fee is charged depending on the service provided
to replenish program materials and supplies.
Inside this issue
HRHS Vet Program to the Rescue ............. 2
STEM Educators to NASA ......................... 2
CTE is Growing......................................... 3
College Credits Earned ............................. 3
CTE Racing to the Top .............................. 4
Final Cut Pro Certified ............................. 4
Kulinary Heroes Opens ............................ 5
VPSC Summer Summit ............................. 5
Career Academies .................................... 6
The Commercial Sewing class will begin in October and students
will be trained in alterations, completing simple garments, using a
sewing machine, and an embroidery machine. Vocational
Rehabilitation sponsors many of the students, providing tuition
support and job placement services upon successful program
completion
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“The greatest injustice we can do - is to do nothing.”
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EXPLORER
Career & Technical Education
Spotlight on CTE
Harmony High School Vet Program Helps Rescue Organizations, Seniors and Low Income Families
A partnership between the Veterinary Assisting Program at Harmony High School and the Pawsitive Action
Foundation provides low cost veterinary care for pets; providing a way to decrease our pet population and provide a
much needed service to pet rescue organizations, senior citizens, and persons of low income.
Pawsitive Action Foundation, Inc. has contracted the services of Dr. Lee Godman, DVM and Dr. Matt Walter, DVM to
provide low cost services for the animals using the Harmony Veterinary Assisting Program's clinic and operating room
at Harmony High School each Thursday. Harmony Veterinary Technical program students serve as assistants to the
doctors and technicians, from pre-op checkup to post-op recovery. Students are able to observe during the operations and ask
questions of the doctors. Also, the students are given hands-on training from experienced veterinary technicians.
This unique partnership brings the veterinary office into the classroom and provides unprecedented access to veterinary care
procedures for students on a regular basis – helping the community by providing low cost, quality animal care and providing realworld educational opportunities for the students. The services are also available to the staff of the Harmony schools for a slightly
elevated fee. The additional fee goes directly to the vet-tech program. Furthermore, this unique relationship allows the school
system to have access to the veterinary program without having to fund the salaries of the veterinarians or their staff. More
information can be obtained from the organizations web site: www.pawsitiveaction.org.
STEM Educator Workshop at Kennedy Space Center
A group of 45 Career and Technical educators will participate in an exciting STEM related
workshop at the NASA Educator Resource Center on October 22. The purpose of the NASA
Educator Resource Center is to help teachers learn about and use NASA's educational resources. The participants
will see demonstrations of educational technologies such as NASA educational Web sites and NASA Television .
SCHS Excels at FCCLA National Leadership Conference
FCCLA (Family Career and Community Leaders of America) is a national student organization endorsed by the U.S.
Department of Education and the Association for Career and Technical Education. FCCLA promotes personal growth and leadership
development through Family and Consumer Sciences education.
The FCCLA National Leadership Conference, held July 4-8, 2010, in Chicago, provided students with workshops designed to enhance
leadership skills and build positive character. There are dozens of competitive events that test students’ knowledge and ability in the
Family and Consumer Sciences fields.
Congratulations to the following participants in this national event:
Gold Medals:
Chapter Showcase—Nicole Roeseler and Samantha Farmer
Illustrated Talk on Teen Dating Violence—Nova Pena and Tihler Browning
Life Event Planning for College—Rachel Smith and Sarah Mannix
Silver Medals:
National Programs in Action—Traffic Safety—Angelina DiFede and Millie Todd
Career & Technical Education
EXPLORER
CTE Department is Growing
To better serve our programs, teachers and community the CTE department is re-structuring staff assignments and
adding some new faces. With the growth of the STEM movement across the nation we have added a resource
teacher position dedicated to STEM, Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics, based programs. The
STEM resource teacher position is currently being advertised and will be filled soon.
Another projected growth area for our community is Hospitality and Marketing. The current state of our economy
will certainly turn around and tourism will once again be the main-stay of our area. To be prepared for this we
have added a resource teacher position dedicated to expanding and serving Hospitality and Marketing programs. Melissa Gurkins,
marketing teacher at Zenith Career Center has been hired to tackle this role for our CTE department. Melissa comes to the
department with vast experience as a marketing teacher and former owner of a restaurant. We are all looking forward to Melissa’s
expertise and leadership as the Marketing and Hospitality Resource Teacher.
Another new member of the CTE Team comes to us from Liberty High School, Jim Zito will be filling Jeff Johnson’s position as the
Business and Information Technology Resource Teacher. Jim will be responsible for all of our business and IT programs as well as
managing the Certiport Industry Certification system and implementing the introduction of CTE program servers in our high schools.
Jim has a wealth of experience in computer networks, software operations and IT topics and will help us continue to move forward in
these important technical areas.
Long-time CTE Team Member Jeannie Renick has taken on the task of managing the development of Scope and Sequencing Guides
and Semester and Final Exams for ALL our CTE programs. These are major pieces of the broader effort to coordinate our program
content across the district and to further support student mastery of academic concepts and technical skills. Jeannie will be
organizing content teams of teachers to develop the exams and sequencing guides. All products from the teams will be field tested
by our teachers prior to final distribution
College Credits Earned by Career Pathway Students
During the 2009-2010 school year, 2,597 college credits valued at $238,224 were earned by Career Pathway students enrolled in
Career and Technical Education courses.
High Schools ...................... Total Credits ....................... Total Value
Celebration ............................... 150 .................................... $13,760
Gateway ................................... 694 .................................... $63,661
Harmony ................................... 205 .................................... $18,805
Liberty ....................................... 234 .................................... $21,465
Osceola ..................................... 521 .................................... $47,791
PATHS ....................................... 363 .................................... $33,298
Poinciana .................................. 124 .................................... $11,375
St. Cloud ................................... 108 ...................................... $9,907
Middle Schools .................. Total Credits ....................... Total Value
Denn John .................................. 34 ....................................... $3,119
Kissimmee ................................. 62 ....................................... $5,687
Narcoossee ................................ 42 ....................................... $3,853
Neptune ..................................... 17 ....................................... $1,559
Parkway ..................................... 43 ....................................... $3,944
TOTAL OSCEOLA COUNTY ....... 2597............................... $238,224
EXPLORER
Career & Technical Education
CTE is Racing To The Top
Florida has been awarded over $700 million dollars from federal Race to the Top (RTT) funds. A major component of RTT is career
and technical education, career academies and STEM programs. Your CTE department is part of the district planning team working
on a proposal to the State of Florida for RTT funds.
RTT requires that all participants increase the number of career academies, career and technical
programs and STEM programs over the four-year grant period. This funding opportunity comes
at an opportune time for our programs in that we have been developing plans for new academies
and STEM related programs for the past several years. The RTT effort will further enable CTE to
grow in Osceola County.
Construction Career Days
The Florida Department of Transportation, Florida Transportation Builders Association, Federal Highway
Administration in conjunction with the Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Volusia, Lake and Brevard County Schools
will be hosting the Ninth Annual Central Florida Construction Career Days in Orlando on January 25-27, 2011 at
the Central Florida Fairgrounds in Orlando.
Our goal is to educate students on career opportunities in the transportation construction industry in Central
Florida, an industry that is essential to improving the transportation methods that affect all of us. The
participating schools will send students for approximately five hours of
TV Production Teachers Certified in Apple Final Cut Pro
During July, two of our high school TV Production Teachers attended a week-long training in Apple’s Final Cut Pro, the software utilized
in our district’s TV and Digital Video Production labs.
Ben Lowell, Osceola High School’s TV Production teacher, and Meredith Muse, Liberty High School’s TV Production teacher gained new
knowledge of the digital video production software at this training and continued their study of the software during their time outside
the workshop. As a result of their dedicated efforts, these two Osceola District teachers were the only workshop participants who
successfully passed the Industry Certification Exam in Apple Final Cut Pro, available to participants at the end of the training.
Congratulations to Ben Lowell, OCHS, and Meredith Muse, LBHS, for
officially becoming Apple Certified Professionals in Final Cut Pro.
We are proud of you and know your students will benefit from your
knowledge and enthusiasm.
Career & Technical Education
EXPLORER
“Kulinary Heroes” Opens at Osceola High School
The Culinary Design and Operations Academy at Osceola High School has initiated a new venture for its students. The “Kulinary Heroes” sub
and sandwich shop opened at Amanda Richard’s culinary classroom in early September. OCHS students and staff can place an order and
leave a donation at the culinary classroom in the morning, and pick up a healthy lunch during their lunch time. Menu items include:
Turkey-Bacon Panini
Italian Sub
Turkey or Ham Wrap
Grilled Triple-Decker Cheese
The Ultimate Hero. (Weighing in at ¾ of a pound)
All sandwiches include a 100 calorie snack pack and a pickle spear. Sounds yummy and it’s making me
hungry just to read about it – how about you?
Kulinary Heroes lunches also include a small gift: a note with interesting facts about food or culinary topics. Ms. Richards calls it “a little
something to read while you eat.”
Students from the advanced Culinary classes prepare the food and operate “Kulinary Heroes”. Students
learn about restaurant operation, menu preparation, food ordering and processing, and deli operations by
participating in this new venture. Ms. Richard’s classroom is a busy place during every period of culinary
classes. Congratulations on the opening and success of “Kulinary Heroes” at the OHS Kowboy campus.
PATHS & CTE Team Attends Summer Academy Conference
In June, a team of Career Academy instructors from the Professional and Technical High School attended the VPSC (Voluntary Public School
Choice) Summer Summit grant-funded Career Academy Conference in St. Petersburg, FL. The VPSC conference was planned by a coalition
of nine west central Florida school districts, led by Polk County Schools. The purpose of the conference was to provide concentrated
training and planning time to members of CAPE Career Academy Teams. The team members from PATHS are involved in developing Career
Academies at their schools. After learning about FLDOE regulations and updates, academy cohort scheduling, academy benefits and
standards of practice, and business partnerships, the PATHS team developed a plan of action for implementing two CAPE Career Academies
at PATHS this school year: The Academy of Information Technology and the Academy of Automotive Service Technology.
Osceola staff attending the Career Academy Conference were:
Mark Hunt, CTE Director
Sharon Lowen, CTE Academy/Internship Specialist
Jeannie Renick, CTE Specialist
Len Trushkowsky, PATHS IT Instructor
Miguel Jimenez, PATHS IT Instructor
Greg Hobbs, PATHS IT Instructor
Ivelisse Resto, PATHS Business Instructor
Karen Johnson, PATHS Business Instructor
Tom Klem, PATHS Automotive Technology Instructor
Cheryl Smith, PATHS Guidance
Tim Harmon, PATHS Algebra Instructor
Career & Technical Education
Career and Technical Education (CTE)
Is offered in all 67 counties in Florida high schools and
career academies. CTE encompasses scores of
specialized career instruction within these broad
categories:
Agriscience 
Business Technology Education
Diversified Education
Family and Consumer Science
Health Science Education
Industrial Education
Marketing Education
Public Service Education
Technology Education
EXPLORER