NEWS

Program will put money in students’ pockets

Bonnie Bolden
bbolden@thenewsstar.com

An education program set to launch in East Carroll, Madison and Richland parish schools plans to keep students in class by putting cash in their pockets.

File photo

Delta Work Ready Academy, funded through a grant from the Delta Regional Authority, will pay students $7.25 an hour for time spent in the classroom and learning skills on the job, said the Rev. James Smith.

The $150,000 grant will pay for three employees to develop the curriculum, which is set to be integrated in the 2016-17 school year. Smith said each student’s minimum foundation program funding will travel with them.

State Superintendent of Education John White said the Louisiana Department of Education has worked with Smith, superintendents in the three parishes, Louisiana Economic Development and Louisiana Workforce Commission to develop a plan. He said collaborations like these are often needed to help families and children face otherwise intractable hurdles.

“This is all about offering opportunities for a lot of kids who oftentimes don’t get a shot,” White said.

Smith said his work to combat truancy in Richland Parish inspired him to create the academy and pull together representatives from three state agencies, local educational leaders and local business leaders to work on workforce needs.

“Now we’re going to take those kids that aren’t going to be able to pass,” Smith said, “the kids that aren’t going to have the numbers to graduate. These kids are going to start taking these classes. In these classes, they will give them a skill, whether it’s in nursing, welding, sheet rock...”

Voleria Millikin, superintendent of East Carroll Parish Schools, said approximately 90 ninth-graders will be eligible for the program.

“The Delta Work Ready Academy will provide a great opportunity for our school district to collaborate with colleges and businesses in providing career courses and workplace experiences to our high school students, certifying them for the career fields most likely to lead to high-wage high-demand jobs,” Millikin said.

Smith said each school district will develop its own school and function in its own way, but they all will put teens to work and give each student the opportunity to graduate with certification to be work ready.

Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Steven Grissom said marketable manufacturing skills are a critical need in northeastern Louisiana, and ensuring the workforce has those assets will benefit the region and the state in the long term.

“The types of skills that LED FastStart can help Delta Work Ready Academy provide to its students are the same ones that are frequently in demand from our company clients,” Grissom said. “These skills include the technical skills needed to be productive and safe on the job, and also behavioral skills, such as attendance, punctuality and the ability to work on teams. Students will develop these skills through LED FastStart’s Certification for Manufacturing (C4M) program, which is based on the needs of Louisiana manufacturing companies.”

In a letter written to support the DRA grant process, LED executive director of workforce development programs Jeff Lynn said several Louisiana companies have partnered with the educational system to offer interviews for all C4M completers and hire from the work-ready pool.

Smith said U.S. Sen. David Vitter was a major supporter of the academy, starting at the program’s inception.

“This is exactly the sort of thing we need to be doing a whole lot more of in Louisiana,” Vitter said. “One of our big economic development challenges is skills training, workforce training. In a lot of parts of the state, we have some good-paying jobs available. We don’t often have the skilled workforce of Louisianians to fill them, and so we need to bridge that gap and so programs like this can help.”

Louisiana Workforce Commission Office of Workforce Development director Bryan Moore said Delta Work Ready Academy will let troubled youths get on a career path that will lead to high wage and high-demand occupations. LWC support will help impart to students the soft skills they need to get a job, conduct themselves properly on a job and appropriately leave a job.

“We’re offering support to the program and to the participants to get connected to our workforce system to help those individuals that are going through it ultimately receive employment and their education, so if they’re high school dropouts, for example, we want to make sure that they’re not just getting their HiSET, which is their graduate equivalent diploma, but also some type of industry-based certification or some type of job skills that’s consistent with the careers that in demand here in the state of Louisiana,” Moore said.

Delta Regional Authority federal co-chairman Christopher Masingill said the academy is an important part of a needed focus on keeping kids on a pathway to success — an initiative he calls Kindergarten through Jobs, K to J.

“DRA believes we need to tackle this from a systems approach,” he said. “We need to make sure that all the players at the table — K-12, higher ed, business and industry, economic development, community development. ... It’s all about creating a pipeline of skilled workers for our industries.”

“With the support of the Louisiana Department of Education and school districts in Northeast Louisiana, we believe the academy can become a significant contributor to helping students become more successful in their personal and vocational lives,” Grissom said. “At the upper end — at the conclusion of a 10-year track record and with substantial support from stakeholders — Delta Work Ready Academy could support hundreds of Northeast Louisiana at-risk students and provide them a meaningful pathway to a productive career.”