Beaufort County Schools outlines expansion of CTE pathways, referendum projects and industry partnerships

Karen Gilbert, director for career technical education for Beaufort County Schools, told the district Academic Committee on April 22, 2025, that the district is expanding career and technical education (CTE) pathways, aligning to a newly updated state framework and using referendum funds and local partnerships to add new facilities and programs.

Gilbert said the district now records “a little over 8,000 course enrollments and about 4,000 students” who take one or more CTE courses. She said students who followed CTE pathways from ninth grade in a recent cohort had a 98 percent graduation rate (971 students in that cohort) and that students earned “over 1,400 certifications” last year.

The presentation outlined several near-term and 5-to-10-year plans the district expects to implement. Gilbert told the committee that JROTC will become an official statewide pathway starting next year and that Bluffton High School was selected as one of 30 state pilot sites for an artificial intelligence curriculum. She said the district is coordinating local workforce development credits with Technical College of the Lowcountry and University of South Carolina Beaufort and cited a range of employer partners, including Buford Memorial Hospital, the Hilton Head and Bluffton Chamber’s lowcountryjobsnow.org initiative, Encompass Health and local utilities.

Why it matters: District leaders described CTE as a way both to raise student engagement and to build a local talent pipeline for health care, construction, digital and advanced manufacturing jobs. Many of the program changes depend on facilities the community approved through prior referendums and on continued cooperation with employers and postsecondary partners.

Details and referendum projects Gilbert described referendum-funded projects already underway and planned facility changes that will expand access: a new health sciences wing at Hilton Head Island High School; construction-trades buildings at Buford High and Bluffton High; expansion of welding and advanced-process labs; small-engine and marine technologies at Hilton Head Island High School; upgraded family and consumer sciences labs and commercial kitchens at Bluffton High and Beaufort High; and expanded culinary arts spaces tied to local resorts. She said public-safety programs (firefighter training with an eventual EMT focus) will be added at Buford, Bluffton and Hilton Head Island high schools and that building placement was planned to provide geographic access across the county.

Partnerships and pathways Gilbert named Project Lead the Way as the district’s national curriculum provider for pre-engineering and highlighted career-development groups such as DECA, HOSA and FBLA. She said the district has 25 pathways across the six high schools plus additional shared options through the Beaufort Jasper Career Academy. She described a regional focus—health care, JROTC, engineering, digital technologies and advanced manufacturing—and said the course cluster definitions the state is updating will make pathways more aligned to industry and more flexible (for example, allowing entrepreneurship coursework to count toward multiple pathways).

On employer partnerships, Gilbert highlighted Buford Memorial Hospital’s clinical training program: 13 students across four high schools will graduate May 13 with either patient-care technician or certified medical assistant credentials and the hospital has indicated it may offer jobs to some graduates; Gilbert said the hospital’s PATH program can later fund further training such as an RN degree for students who remain employed there.

Transportation and access Board member Gordon asked whether the district provides buses if a student’s home school does not hold a desired CTE course. Gilbert said transportation for choice students to other high schools currently is not provided through federal or state CTE funding and would require local funding. “At this time, unless it's a grant specific ... transportation is currently not provided,” Gilbert said, adding that transportation would need to come from general fund resources if adopted locally.

Other discussion Committee members praised the district’s elementary and middle-school exploratory work, including robotics in Port Royal Elementary and middle-grade Project Lead the Way offerings. Board member Dallas said outside groups, including the Hilton Head Island/Bluffton Chamber of Commerce and state officials, are noticing the district’s CTE work and discussing additional partnerships.

What’s next Gilbert said many projects will roll out over the next five years as referendum construction completes; the district plans to expand pilots such as the Bluffton AI site to other schools and to continue aligning pathways with regional labor-market needs.

Votes at a glance - Approval of meeting agenda — motion passed (no mover/second named in the transcript). No public comments were recorded. - Approval of March 25, 2025 meeting minutes — motion passed; board member Miss Gordon recorded as voting "Aye"; other votes not individually named in the transcript.