Grants

Career technical education at MUSD keeping pace with 21st century expectations

By Sheryl Sisil, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services

Madera Unified has been awarded multiple state-funded grants over the past five years. In 2014, the Agriculture Department at Madera South High  School was awarded a $600,000 California Career Pathways Trust (CCPT) grant to develop a career pathway in Plant Science, with a focus on Viticulture and Enology. The intent of the California Career Pathways Trust is to build stronger connections between businesses, California schools, and community colleges to better prepare students for the 21st-century workplace. CCPT grants invest in partnerships of education and business organizations that commit to sustainably establishing or expanding new and innovative career pathway programs in grades nine through fourteen. In 2015, Madera Unified applied for a second California Career Pathway Trust Grant as a collaborative with Clovis Unified and Sanger Unified and partnered with the Kremen School of Education at Fresno State in the Education Career Pathway and was the recipient of a $3,000,000 pathway grant. In 2016, the governor released money to support Career Technical Education (CTE) in the form of an Incentive Grant (CTEIG) program. This grant was a three-year renewable grant and Madera Unified has received approximately $3,000,000 in the past two funding cycles. The CTEIG program was to maintain existing CTE programs during the implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) in school districts across the state. In order to qualify for grant funding, the school district must show evidence that its CTE programs meet the eleven criteria of High-Quality CTE programs. With the passage of Proposition 51 came the CTE Facilities Grant. The CTE Facilities grant will provide funding for new CTE facilities, CTE Modernization to existing facilities, and also CTE equipment. Through the CTE Facility Program Grant (CTEFP) we have been working with Education Resource Consultants to write a total of five separate CTEFP grants. In the first round, the district secured $2,300,000 of funding for two modernization projects at Madera High School — the first for the Systems Diagnostics, Service, and Repair (SDSR) pathways, and the second for the Residential and Commercial Construction (RCC) Pathway. This is a matching grant that can include construction costs and equipment. This project will allow us to open our new pathways in high-wage, high-skill industry sectors based upon the community feedback we have received. In the second round of the CTEFP grant, the district has successfully submitted an application for the new CTE facilities being built at Matilda Torres High School — the first for the Food Services and Hospitality (FSH), the second for Health Science and Medical Technology (HSMT), and the last for Product Innovation and Design or Manufacturing (PID). These three facilities are already a part of Matilda Torres High School. These grants, if awarded, allow us to apply for some money back from the state through the CTEFP grant. This is a matching grant that can include construction costs and equipment. This project will allow us to open each of these pathways in a state-of-the-art facility in high-wage, high-skill industry sectors based upon the community feedback we have received. If awarded the grant, it would allow us to secure approximately $5.9 million dollars to be dedicated to the Matilda Torres High School CTE facilities.