McCracken school board OKs grant application for skills center

View original at paducahsun.com

By JASON MORROW jmorrow@paducahsun.com

As part of the Work Ready Skills Initiative, Kentucky has already granted more than $65 million to 25 projects across the state.

About $34 million is still up for grabs, and McCracken County High School hopes to get $8.2 million of it.

The McCracken County School Board approved the grant application during its meeting Tuesday, and if all goes as hoped, the high school will get enough money to build the McCracken County Skills Center.

The center would be a stand-alone facility on the high school campus, housing traditional vocational programs like welding, carpentry and health sciences among others.

"The big goal of this Skills Center would be to create a school culture that champions college and career readiness," said Genevieve Postlethwait, a grant writer for McCracken County Schools.

She said grant funds would be provided for up to 90 percent of the total project costs, and the rest would have to be covered by the school system and partnerships throughout the community.

McCracken County High School Principal Michael Ceglinski said the building would be able to serve more students who are interested in vocational studies.

"We've all recognized that this is sort of our chance, our window of opportunity to potentially help economic development in our community and also provide kids with viable career pathways," Ceglenski said.

In February, Paducah Public Schools was granted $3.8 million, which will be put toward its Innovation Hub. But Ceglinski said McCracken isn't engaging in any competition.

"We are in no way, shape or form trying to compete with these systems," Ceglinski said. "We're just trying to provide our kids an opportunity just like everybody else is."

Ceglinski said the new building will give the high school a better chance to work with partners in the community that provide apprenticeship programs.

"Some of these apprenticeship programs are taking anywhere from 15 to 20 people a year, and none of them have been from McCracken County," he said.

The building also would allow McCracken middle school students to participate in programs offered at the Skills Center, getting them familiar with the high school setting they would potentially be entering in a few years.

The deadline for the grant application is March 17. The school system will learn in May whether it will be awarded the full amount, a partial amount or none at all.