A group tasked with studying the feasibility of building a comprehensive, 4-year career and technical education school in Maine voted against that proposal Thursday morning.
In July, Gov. Janet Mills signed a resolution to create a Career and Technical Education task force made up of administrators, legislators and state education leaders. Members reviewed potential avenues to expand CTE for Maine students, including a 4-year school proposed for CTE Region 10 in Brunswick. If built as proposed, the school would cost an estimated $60 million and serve 300 full-time and 100 part-time students, who would take CTE and academic courses on site.
CTE programs have typically enrolled high school juniors and seniors, who attend part time while balancing academic courses. But an increased demand for younger trades and medical workers post COVID has prompted school districts and the state to explore how to integrate ninth and tenth graders, better preparing them for the workforce.
During their final meeting in Augusta Thursday, the task force voted 10-to-6 against building a new school due to concerns about the estimated cost and potential negative impacts on current CTE programs in area schools.
For instance, if a school was built in Brunswick, that could take away students from Bath Regional & Technical Center, said Julie Kenny, Bath’s center director. Since CTE funding from the state is tied to 3-year averages for student enrollment, any decrease in students could take away a program’s funding for staff instructors.
“Bath is not a sending school of Region 10 [in Brunswick]. If we lose students, we lose funding,” Kenny said. “There’s a real possibility of killing local programs [with a new school], which puts fewer students in the workforce.”
Most task force members supported exploring a new school or local pilot programs for 4-year programs at a later time, but agreed to first look at ways to help expand current programs throughout the state.
The task force voted unanimously to recommend that the state look at potential funding sources to help CTE centers and regions partner with local employers or trades unions to expand programs. That could happen with after-school class sessions for programs with wait lists, mobile training labs or collaborations with higher education institutions, employers or community spaces.
David Keaton, task force member and executive director for the Maine Association of Career and Technical Education, recommended that the Maine Department of Education consider modifying its current new program application so that centers and regions can expand or change aspects of current programs within a year.
That could make it easier and quicker for Maine’s 27 CTE centers and regions to set up space for a third program session to occur after school hours, Keaton said. Currently, CTE programs operate with a morning and afternoon session, with student capacity often limited to no more than 16.
“This would be an option for CTE centers and regions with wait lists, not for all programs,” Keaton said. “They would need to survey student interests, like they already do for new programs, and likely there would be transportation issues to solve.”
The task force also recommended that the legislature continue looking for other means to increase CTE program capacity, expand existing programs and increase exposure to CTE for ninth and tenth graders. The state should also collect data that will help detail the full scope of issues surrounding access and enrollment, said task force members.
In addition, the task force recommended that the state support CTE centers and regions as they look to expand dual high school credit options for students, including those attending CTE from surrounding towns. Per LD 436, which Mills signed into law this year, school districts have until June 2025 to decide which CTE classes also qualify for academic credit toward graduation.
Sen. Joe Rafferty, D-York, task force chairperson and co-chair of the state legislature’s Education & Cultural Affairs committee, voted in support of building a 4-year school.
Rafferty suggested that the state still work toward a goal of implementing 4-year programs within existing schools, if a new school truly is not possible.
“If we don’t have the capacity now, we need to create ways to have 4-year programs, even if we start with just one school like Region 10,” Rafferty said. “There may be other locations to look at later on.”
Once the committee’s final report is complete, it will be presented to the state’s Education & Cultural Affairs committee on or before January 15, then presented to the legislature at a later date.
