Board approves youth-build MOU with Chicanos de la Casa to support GED and job training

The Agua Fria Union High School District governing board approved a memorandum of understanding to partner with a community organization identified in the meeting transcript as "Chicanos de la Casa, or CCLC" to operate a Youth Build program that pairs high-school coursework and GED preparation with construction job training.

An unnamed presenter described the MOU as a partnership that will engage students in their fifth or sixth year and outreach to students who have dropped out. "This partnership allows them to contact our students and to apply their dropout or credit recovery of fifth or sixth year seniors, to help them obtain their GED or high school equivalency, and also receive some construction off-the-job training certificates through Habitat for Humanity," the presenter said. The presenter said the pathway would lead to employment in the construction trades.

Board members asked clarifying questions about which students would participate; staff responded that current fifth- and sixth-year students would be eligible and that the program would also reach out to former students who have dropped out. The MOU was presented for approval and included as part of the consent agenda; the board approved the consent agenda items.

Why it matters: The MOU creates a pathway combining academic credit recovery and workforce training for students who need extra time to graduate or who have left school, potentially increasing GED attainment and job placement for participating students.

What's next: program details, student recruitment and grant/funding specifics were not specified in the transcript and will be developed under the partnership agreement and implementation plan.