By Shanna Cummings
The Culberson County-Allamoore Independent School District (CCAISD) held a regular meeting on Monday, April 19.
Representatives from Borderplex Workforce presented information on various programs aimed at helping students prepare for and transition into the workforce after graduation.
Texas Workforce Center (TWC) youth career prep training includes soft skills like interviewing and communication with coworkers and employers, as well as more concrete skills like resume writing. They also help with identifying job fairs and career exploration, focusing on high demand careers in the region.
The Grind Talk series is a collection of youth-oriented career informational presentations on job skills like Interview Preparation, Certification, Stress Management, and Soft Skills, presented in both live and online formats. TWC also currently offers Metrix online learning courses for free. The courses focus on in-demand skills like customer service, Microsoft Office, and data management.
TWC also offers apprenticeship programs, where members of local electrical, plumbing and welding unions provide mentorship to interested students and assist teachers with projects involving their trade.
The Student HireAbility Navigator helps students with disabilities age 14-22 find training and work experience through partnerships with local businesses. Starting in Eighth grade, participating students and their families can develop a transition plan with Vocational Rehabilitation that includes skills assessment and development, training and employment experience. The goal is to give participants the skills needed to take a meaningful place in the workforce after graduation.
TWC also helps with child care, including a Relative Care program that pays a relative for child care services if there aren’t enough child care facilities in the community, opening up parents to pursue career opportunities.
The Growing Forward program helps qualified students 14-24, particularly those in foster care whose households participate in government subsidized programs with employment, training, job skills and mentoring.
Also at this meeting:
The yearly audit has been postponed until the audit process is complete.
Board members approved the second quarter investment report. Superintendent Ken Baugh said he was watching oil and gas carefully.
For the Superintendent’s report, Baugh said seniors were working to meet all requirements for graduation. Baugh confirmed in a later communication that all Seniors have passed their state mandated End of Course exams. Seniors also need to meet attendance requirements and pass all required courses.
This year, the STAAR standardized exam has been waived for all other grades, but students still must meet attendance and academic performance standards in order to move to the next grade.
Intervention is held on Monday through Thursday from 4:00-6:00 pm.
Baugh said 75 percent of district staff had received vaccinations at the time of the board meeting, and CCAISD had little to no COVID activity.
