Paulding County highlights work‑based learning: students earned $3.8 million and logged 351,000 hours districtwide

At its Jan. 28 meeting the Paulding County School District highlighted results from its Career, Technical and Agricultural Education (CTAE) work‑based learning program and recognized participating students.

Tiffany Frazier, the district's chief academic officer, introduced Makayla Rawson and Macy Crabbe, two students from North Paulding High School, and described districtwide CTAE outcomes: "We have approximately 700 high school students who participate in work based learning," she said, and "those 700 students worked collectively 351,000 hours last year, they earned $3,800,000 in wages and they had a $15,000,000 impact on our local economy." Frazier added that the program had 365 business partners.

Makayla Rawson said she worked at "6th and Big Beauty Bar over in Crossroads" and that work based learning "taught me how to deal with, like, customer service and how to talk to people and communicate better." Macy Crabbe said she worked at Chick‑fil‑A and joined the program to better manage school and work; "I started working when I was 14 years old," she said, and work‑based learning helped her "manage that a lot better."

Frazier told the board that 99.2% of Paulding CTAE concentrators graduate on time and 97.5% move immediately into post‑secondary placements. She said North Paulding hosts roughly half of the district's work‑based learning participants and that North Paulding students alone logged "over 80,000 hours" and earned nearly $1,000,000 in wages last semester.

Board members and the superintendent recognized the student speakers and presented small tokens of appreciation during the meeting. The district said it will continue to promote partnerships with local businesses to expand placements and employer participation.