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For
a share time program, the Morris County School of Technology
vocational programs are excellent. Students spend a
half-day at their home districts learning Algebra, Spanish,
and Shakespeare and a half-day at our school learning
how to cut hair, fix cars, or build homes. The program
worked fine for many years, but alas, the times they
are a-changin’. There are three primary reasons
schools like ours must switch to a full time program.
They are scheduling, course integration, and socialization.
Let me now address them in turn.
The
first problem we face deals with scheduling. Because
of the increase in curriculum requirements, students
can no longer find time in their schedules to attend
Morris Tech in their freshman or sophomore years. This
has obviously put downward pressure on our enrollment
figures thereby putting programs and staff in jeopardy.
By converting to a full-time program and taking students
in their freshman year, our enrollment is anticipated
to increase from its current 500 (estimated) to as much
as 900.
Second,
the ability to integrate academic courses with occupational
courses. Imagine a child facing difficulty in math,
but has a desire to become a general contractor when
he/she reaches maturity. The child now enters our program
where both occupational and academic courses are taught
together. Geometry is now taught taking into account
building principles. The learning of percentages, finding
the profit in the building of an office building, figuring
out the cost of sales, ROI, IRR, EBIT, etc. is now something
that is relevant to the child’s future. Now the
child gets it. To this day, the only thing I care about
when a train going 85 miles an hour is leaving New York
and another train is leaving Los Angeles at 100 miles
an hour is that when they meet, who is the law firm
representing the victims. We now have an opportunity
to make education relevant. An interested child is a
learning child.
Finally,
in the area of socialization. How many of us remember
being interested in a topic only to be distracted in
the class by those who were not. Having students working
together who share the same interests and goals is yet
another way to improve the educational experience. Not
every child is suited for the traditional liberal arts
program nor should they have to be. A full time technical
program is the way to make education work for all the
others.
The
Morris County School of Technology has spent the last
two years studying the full time program concept and
has shared our findings with the county freeholder board.
Schools in similar predicaments that we have studied
have all benefited by making the change to full-time
status. Furthermore, if we act now the State of New
Jersey will reimburse the county up to 40% of the cost
of construction. That money may not be available forever.
We know the county freeholder board views the Morris
County School of Technology positively and would like
to see our programs thrive. It is the unanimous position
of the Board of Education that both for the benefit
of the children of Morris County and the taxpayers we
need to move on this now so we can begin our transition
in 2003. We only hope the freeholder board gives this
issue the time it deserves in order to make this very
important decision.
June
4, 2002
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