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Community advisory committee recommends expanded career pathways, online options and middle-school focus
Summary
A 14-member community advisory committee recommended Willoughby-Eastlake expand career exploration beginning in middle school, develop local career-technical programs aligned with workforce needs, strengthen industry partnerships, use online learning selectively and ensure equitable access.
Dr. Jennifer Dodd, secretary of the district’s Community Advisory Committee, presented the committee’s 2024–25 findings and recommendations to the board on June 9, reporting four meetings and participation from parents, staff, residents and two students.
"Our purpose is to engage in constructive and productive conversations around a topic that we pick at the beginning of the year," Dodd said, summarizing the committee’s work. This year the group reviewed comparable Northeast Ohio districts and focused on the WE experience and customized learning: experiential learning, work‑based learning (internships, shadowing), career‑technical education and online learning.
Nut graf: The committee recommended expanding career exploration and workforce-readiness opportunities beginning in middle school; developing locally designed CTE programs that align with student interest and local workforce needs and offer credentials or college credit; strengthening industry and higher-education partnerships to support real-world learning; using online learning for flexibility, credit recovery and enrichment where appropriate; and ensuring equitable access across buildings and grade levels.
Dodd said committee members used district strategic priorities to guide their work and conducted high-level research of peer districts from October through January. Members then met with administrators and students to identify gaps and promising practices. The group suggested next-year work focus on the middle-school experience and building‑to‑building transitions (pre-K to kindergarten, elementary to middle and middle to high school).
Personnel tie-in: As part of the consent calendar adopted later in the meeting, the board approved administrative personnel changes that include creating a career-technical education coordinator role; the agenda item named Eric Frye to that role and noted part of his salary will be funded through adult education contributions.
Ending: The board received the committee's report and thanked members for the work; the committee will continue its work next year with an emphasis on middle-school transitions and implementation of the recommendations.
