A community effort is bringing attention to establishing a skills center in Whatcom County that would serve all juniors and seniors in the county. In April, Rep. Rick Larsen announced the skills center expansion as one of the 15 local community projects he was requesting funding for in the Fiscal Year 2024 spending bill. This would support infrastructure and establish more programs in addition to what is already being offered in Whatcom County.
Skills centers provide a wide variety of Career and Technical Educational opportunities and provide students preparatory training while still in high school. Students gain college credit, industry-recognized credentials and industry-specific training. Skills centers also expand graduation pathway options for students. Attending a skills center is free for students as part of K-12 funding.
“We’re pretty excited by this work not just for students, but for what it can mean to our community!” said Lynette Brower, Director of Northwest Career & Technical Academy (NCTA).
Whatcom County was identified by the Washington State Skills Center Association as a skill center desert and was prioritized as a location for a future campus through NCTA’s long-range plan. Currently, Meridian is a satellite campus for NCTA providing fire science and welding programs.
However, in order to provide a wider range of opportunities for all students in the county, Brower is working with Superintendent Dr. James Everett to create awareness and gather support for a skills center in Whatcom County.
For smaller school districts, providing opportunities for students to pursue different Career and Technical Education pathways can be costly and difficult. Skills centers provide students with more opportunities to pursue career interests that are outside of or as the next step in training that’s already happening in the typical high school course offerings.
“We are really excited about the possibility of bringing a skills center to Whatcom County,” Everett said. “Meridian is centrally located in the county and has property available to provide an ideal location for a new core campus. It is incredibly important to provide our students this access to pursue their passions.”
Currently, the closest core skills center is the Northwest Career & Technical Academy in Mount Vernon. While some students currently travel to NCTA, the distance presents challenges for many students in the region. This year, NCTA is helping to support the cost to transport students from Meridian to Mount Vernon. Because transportation is provided the number of students attending programs at NCTA has greatly increased. This has provided ten additional CTE graduation pathways for Meridian students to thrive.
Due to this already established relationship with NCTA, Meridian being centrally located within Whatcom County and having property available, the proposed core or branch campus would be located off of Guide Meridian north of Laurel Road within Meridian School District. The MSD School Board has already expressed excitement to support this effort and has approved the allocation of that land to the project. Funding for construction of the skills center would be provided by the state legislature and not local tax dollars. While we are actively planning, these funds may not be immediately available.
There are several programs being planned for the skills center. Early childhood education (ECE) is one of those identified programs. Recognizing that Whatcom County is a child care desert and lacks a workforce pipeline, an early learning development center was proposed to increase the capacity of the program both for high school students and Whatcom County’s youngest learners. The Whatcom Early Learning Center will not only be a program for the skills center, it will also serve as a training and clinical space for community providers while also serving 60-90 children from birth to 5 for extended hours.
In order to expand our skills center programs sooner, we sought funding through county and federal resources. As a result, Meridian was recently identified as a recipient of Whatcom County’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for $2 million to support the Whatcom Early Learning Center. Additionally, our two projects have been selected to move forward in the Fiscal Year 2024 Congressional Directed Spending requests. Rep. Rick Larsen supported $3.38 million in support of the infrastructure for a new Whatcom County Skills Center and Sen. Patty Murray has identified a $4 million request to develop a new Whatcom Early Learning Center in Meridian. These funds are dependent on congressional approval for Fiscal Year 2024.
Community support is of vital importance in bringing a skills center to the county. In early February, Whatcom County school district superintendents and School Boards met at the Mount Vernon NCTA campus to learn more about what skills centers offer. Business and community leaders have also weighed in on what they’d like to see offered as programs for students at two information and feedback meetings in late February. Skills centers produce highly skilled and educated students that are better equipped to confidently enter the workforce. Skilled workers in turn support the local economy.
Families and students from school districts in Whatcom County participated in an interest survey for a possible skills center. Over 1,400 people responded to the survey. Out of almost 400 students surveyed, 72 percent said they would be interested in attending a skills center.
“We are so appreciative of the commitment to a shared vision which will ensure our young people will be able to thrive at twenty-five,” Brower said.