Pinellas County Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox addresses the Seminole Chamber of Commerce April 19 at Banquet Masters.
SEMINOLE – Pinellas County Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox told members of the Seminole Chamber of Commerce April 19 that the county is changing its focus and will ramp up its vocational education program.
Following a recommendation by the Pinellas Education Foundation, the Pinellas County School Board recently voted to adopt a plan that would create “centers of excellence” at each of the county’s 16 public high schools. Each would specialize in a specific vocation.
“By 2010, all of our high school campuses will have centers of excellence,” Wilcox said. “All of these will offer industry or board-certified training within a specific field.”
He said plans include hiring an independent firm to survey the community and find out what careers are in demand, eliminate existing programs that aren’t in high demand and retrain faculty to meet industry certification standards for instructors.
Wilcox said the county wants to identify “high-wage, high-skill” jobs and build the centers around those careers.
“I don’t bet on horses,” said Wilcox, “but I like to call it a trifecta that we will be offering.”
Wilcox was referring to the fact that students in the vocational programs will receive a diploma, certification in an industry group and be employment-ready or qualified for a state merit scholarship program should they decide to further their education.
The superintendent also said a proposed home construction curriculum at Seminole Vocational Education Center would probably not go forward.
“We’ve had to rethink that because the housing doesn’t meet hurricane standards,” Wilcox said.
School officials were considering a plan similar to one in Okaloosa County where students build, market and sell homes to the public. Under the Pinellas proposal, manufactured homes would be built at SVEC and sold to the public.
Instead, Wilcox indicated SVEC’s animal program would be expanded.
Commenting on Osceola Fundamental High School, he said the early results are good and the concept would likely be expanded soon to East Lake and possibly Dunedin high schools.
Discussing the Virginia Tech massacre, Wilcox praised local law enforcement and pointed out how all Pinellas schools have a system in place for a lock-down, if necessary.
“Our campuses are as safe as they can be due to our dedicated law enforcement personnel,” he said, “but we would not be able to stop something of the nature that happened at Virginia Tech. This is not the first time for something like this and, unfortunately, will not be the last.”
Wilcox said a recent threat at Largo High School forced a lock-down for about three hours before the threat was determined to be benign.
On the subject of tax reform in Tallahassee, he said schools statewide aren’t in jeopardy of losing funding.
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