PAGE A10, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 20, 2015
Lee, Honey give update on CTEC at luncheon
By CRAIG MURPHY
Of the Keizertimes
John Honey knows from
fi rsthand experience how hav-
ing a college degree doesn’t
guarantee anything.
After all, the former Mc-
Nary High School principal’s
son went to college after high
school and earned a degree.
His next stop: the basement
at mom and dad’s house.
“College doesn’t guarantee
you the jobs it did 25 years
ago,” Honey said at a Keizer
Chamber of Commerce lun-
cheon last week at McNary
Restaurant. “It guarantees you
a lot of money to pay back.”
Honey is helping to set up
the Career Technical Educa-
tion Center, a public-private
partnership between Salem-
Keizer Public Schools and
Mountain West Investment.
Honey will be CTEC prin-
cipal when the school opens
on Portland Road in Salem in
the coming fall. He is work-
ing alongside Chuck Lee, the
Salem-Keizer School Board
member who is president of
the Mountain West Career
Technical Institute on Ferry
Street in Salem.
Lee and Honey have the
shared vision of exposing stu-
dents to career and technical
education. Lee said Larry To-
karski, president of Mountain
West Investment Corporation,
approached him about a year
ago.
“He knew what kids need-
ed to get a job,” Lee said. “He
watched kids graduate, get
good paying jobs and asked
why we couldn’t do that for
more kids. He told me he was
starting CTEC. We’re been
developing this public-private
partnership with the school
district since then. It’s about
preparing students for high-
skill, high-wage jobs. This is
different than the shop classes
we had in high school. This
is about exposure to career
pathways and technical skills.”
Lee said the top jobs avail-
able currently are for welders,
plumbers, mechanics, machin-
ists and fi refi ghters.
“Mountain
West
has
pledged the facility and will
do the equipment,” said Lee,
who confi rmed to the Keiz-
ertimes last week he’s running
for a third term on the school
board. “People in the business
community are excited; the
main challenge they have is
getting a talented workforce.
Hopefully they can attract
other businesses to our com-
munity.
“There’s nothing wrong
with a college degree,” he
added. “But not every kid is
wired for college.”
Next year’s juniors and
seniors in the school dis-
trict are eligible to apply for
CTEC, which will begin
with two programs: residential
construction and commer-
cial manufacturing. Students
will use tools and equipment
while earning credits towards
high school diplomas as well
as college certifi cates and de-
grees. Students would remain
enrolled in their regular high
school, with transportation
provided to and from the
technical institute.
Honey said about 30 stu-
dents are enrolled so far.
“I could fi ll the school
tomorrow with grownups,
because they get it,” Honey
said. “Kids are starting to get
it. We talked to 250 kids from
South Salem and will take 75
of them on a fi eld trip. When
you walk into the 10,000
square foot manufacturing
shop, even empty it’s impres-
sive. There will be opportuni-
ties not available in our regular
high schools.”
Honey said students se-
lected will possess strong work
ethics.
“CTEC can provide stu-
dents the chance to earn good
wages,” he said.
Lee said the vision for such
a program has been within the
school district for years, but
the $140 million in budget
cuts a few years included CTE
programs.
“What Larry has done is a
great gift to the community,”
Lee said. “There’s no way as
a school board we could fi nd
the resources to put it together.
There are things we’re able to
pull from the private side. The
Oregon Community Founda-
tion invested $150,000, hop-
ing this can be a model for the
rest of the state. This is a test
bed.
“We’re trying to fi nd the
resources to make it happen,”
he added. “This is a $14 mil-
lion project; we’ve invested
about $7 million so far. I’m
looking for contacts in in-
dustry, looking for businesses
to step forward. A few dollars
invested will go a long way
towards letting the Salem-
Keizer School District invest
in this and hopefully produce
a quality work force.”
Honey is predicting rap-
id growth for the program,
which will add studies includ-
ing graphics design, aviation
and drones in the next several
years at the rate of two pro-
grams a year.
“We’ve been talking about
KEIZERTIMES/Craig Murphy
John Honey (left) and Chuck Lee confer during the March 10 Keizer Chamber of Commerce
monthly luncheon at McNary Restaurant on March 10. The two men are working together to
establish the Career Technical Education Center.
such a program for the 31
years I’ve been teaching,”
Honey said. “We’ll be serving
an initial 180 kids. Five years
from now, we will have 1,200
kids. We’ll be supporting the
economy, keeping productive
workers here in the commu-
nity.”
Studio M at McNary
launches podcasts
McNary High School’s
Studio M, which provides
recording arts instruction for
a number of students at the
school, has launched a new
podcast series.
The Studio M Podcast fea-
tures interviews with teachers
and community partners talk-
ing about their passions and
experiences.
The fi rst two episodes are
already online and feature in-
terviews with teacher Tracy
Rhoades, a McNary teacher
who runs the Celtic AWARE
Club, and Eric A. Howald,
associate editor of the Keiz-
ertimes and advisor to the
school’s Write Club.
The AWARE Club focuses
on education about human
traffi cking. Write Club pro-
vides a space for student cre-
ative writing and publishes an
anthology of student work at
the end of each academic year.
The easiest way to access
the podcasts is by searching for
Studio M on Facebook.
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