Lake Central High School staff presented an overview of Career and Technical Education (CTE) at the Lake Central School Corporation board meeting on Monday, Oct. 20, describing program growth, student credentials and a new College Board cybersecurity pilot.

Keri Regan and Todd Smolinski, who manage the high school’s CTE committee, said the district offers 13 in-house CTE pathways and partners with the Hammond Area Career Center for 13 additional pathways, giving students access to 26 distinct CTE pathways overall.

Regan told the board the district was invited by the College Board in September 2024 to pilot a new, two-course cybersecurity program. "We were actually invited by the College Board to pilot a brand new program," Regan said. The school applied and learned in December that it had been accepted to the pilot; the first course this year focuses on networking and hardware configuration, and school staff said a cybersecurity course is planned for the 2026–27 school year as part of the pilot sequence.

Presenters gave summary data on program participation and outcomes as reported in the meeting: last year, 319 students in the graduating class completed at least one CTE pathway; roughly 150 outside credentials were earned; staff reported more than 16,000 hours of work-based learning logged across programs. Presenters said 265 graduates completed a pathway that counted toward graduation, up from 195 the prior year (about 36% of graduates), and 43 students earned a technical honor diploma in combination with academic honors.

The presenters described multiple pathways available in-house, including engineering (Project Lead The Way), precision machining, automotive technology, digital design, culinary, business administration, marketing, accounting, biomedical science and human services. Regan said the high school is a Project Lead The Way distinguished school and that PLTW programming remains an active component of local CTE offerings.

Smolinski described partnerships and recent committee growth, noting new members from local labor and trade organizations and a professional-development partner that has offered to produce a large, QR-code-enabled poster the school can hang to link students to apprenticeship and pathway information. Staff also noted an upcoming construction trades event at the Crown Point fairgrounds to which Lake Central students are scheduled to travel next week.

Board members asked about comparative standings with other district programs. Regan said she had not completed a statewide comparison but that regional administrators at DAC meetings had told her Lake Central offers a broader set of programs than many nearby schools.

The presentation emphasized work-based learning, credential attainment and employer partnerships as the core goals of CTE programming; staff encouraged continued community and industry engagement to expand student opportunities.