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Beaufort County academic committee hears expansion plans for career and technical education
Summary
District CTE director Karen Gilbert told the academic committee the district serves roughly 4,000 students in CTE and reported a 98% graduation pass rate for the tracked cohort; she outlined state-aligned pathway changes, certifications and employer partnerships tied to referendum-funded facilities.
Karen Gilbert, the district director for career and technical education, told the Beaufort County School District academic committee on April 22 that the district is expanding career and technical education (CTE) offerings and aligning them with state changes in the next five to ten years. "We are using career and technical resources and options to prepare our students," Gilbert said, and she reported the district has a little over 8,000 course enrollments and about 4,000 unduplicated students participating in CTE programming.
Gilbert described the district's mix of exploratory middle-grade courses and high-school pathways, noting state-approved curriculum and industry certifications are central to the plan. "By the time they graduated we had a 98 percent pass rate," she said of a cohort of students who entered 9th grade in a CTE pathway (71 students were tracked in that cohort). She listed more than two dozen pathways across six high schools and emphasized employer partnerships—naming Beaufort Memorial Hospital and the Beaufort Jasper Sewer and Water Authority among local partners—that offer clinicals, internships and job pipelines. Gilbert said the district recorded over 1,400 industry-recognized certifications last year.
The presentation tied pathway expansion to upcoming referendum projects that will add dedicated CTE facilities, including a health sciences wing and new trade-shop buildings at multiple high schools. Gilbert said many of the expansions are timed with state updates to CTE framework and reporting requirements.
