October 27, 2025 • 54 mins
A new Central Vermont Career Center is being proposed for Central Vermont.
It would more than double the capacity of the current career center. More importantly, it would train the next generation of builders, nurses, electricians and tech pros.
Vermont needs to grow its skilled workforce. But at a cost of $149 million?
Invest in trades now? Wait? CAST YOUR VOTE NOVEMBER 4th !
It would more than double the capacity of the current career center. More importantly, it would train the next generation of builders, nurses, electricians and tech pros.
Vermont needs to grow its skilled workforce. But at a cost of $149 million?
Invest in trades now? Wait? CAST YOUR VOTE NOVEMBER 4th !
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
P S S S S S S S S S
S S S.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Oh boy, here we go headfirst into a new week.
We got Game three of the World Series tonight. I
will be sitting on the couch with a warm blank
it tonight in my new little puzzle table and a
(02:07):
hot cup of something and kicking back and watching the
World Series tonight. Yeah. I'm not a fan of either
one of them, but I always tend to kind of
go for the underdog. I would love to see the
blue Jays win this thing, just because the Dodgers have
won enough and the Blue Jays have and in what
(02:29):
thirty two years something like that. It's so nice to
have you on board. Thank you ever so much for
tuning in this morning, getting your work week started with me.
We've got some cloudy skies and I'm hearing about the
rain that's supposed to be coming in what Thursday, Friday,
(02:51):
more steady on Friday, which is Halloween. And Lily asked
me this morning, is Halloween going to be canceled or postponed?
And it's a resounding no. We'll alter the costume, we'll
get the umbrella out, We'll do whatever we have to do. Rain, snow, wind,
(03:14):
whatever Mother Nature brings, we will be out on Halloween
night collecting candy. Why because we haven't collected enough candy
lately with all the trunk or treating over the last
couple of weeks now. And I have, admittedly I have
(03:36):
snuck a few twigs without anyone knowing about it, and
a couple of full size Reese's peanut butter cups too.
I'm not gonna lie. This is what dat's do. But anyway,
a lot to get to this week. Our community calendar
(03:58):
is so full. This past weekend was amazing. No matter
what you did, where you went, the weather was on
your side for the most part. Nichael's Haunted Grounds on
Saturday night was incredible. But there was just so much happening,
(04:20):
so much happening Maulaween on Friday, it was It was
just a busy, busy weekend. Got out on the dirt
bike with Lily yesterday with Bogie Brothers doing some dirt
bike trick or treating, which is was my first time
doing that, which was interesting and fun, a lot of fun,
(04:46):
a little cold, little damp, but but for the most part,
it was an incredible experience with Bogie Brothers yesterday, so
We have some great guests lined up for you this week.
(05:07):
Already it's packed full, not only this week, but also
next week, and I think even the weekend after that.
It is just so busy right now. If you have
seen the world lately, you probably know that there's a
(05:32):
huge ad in there that says vote in November fourth
with a huge color ad for the Central from Our
Career Center. This is the Central from My Career Center
that could double capacity and train the next generation of
(05:57):
builders and nurses, tech pros, electricians going forward into our
future here in Central Vermont. Jody Emerson is with me
this morning. She's the executive director of the Central from
(06:19):
My Career Center, the existing one right now over at Spalding.
Good morning and welcome. I'm so glad you're here.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
You're back, you came back, and I'm glad. I really
enjoyed our previous conversation that we had a couple of
weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I think when you were maybe a month ago. It
was great.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I should have known about the twigs and receis though
I could have brought you some.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Do you have plenty?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I do?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Do you have copious amounts over there?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
We have some I don't know about Kopias.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
You ever put some some twigs on some vanilla ice cream?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I have not tried that.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Try it. It's amazing. And anyway, yeah, I want to
I want to thank you for coming back. We had
a great conversation a couple of weeks ago. November fourth
is coming up really really fast.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
It's going to be here a week from tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Is it a week from yeah, next Tuesday, a week
from tomorrow, or get there.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
A week from tomorrow? All right, how are you feeling
about this proposed new central from my career center? There's yeah,
I'll let you answer that first.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
I if you're wondering how I'm feeling about how the
vote will go, I really don't know.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I really don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
We definitely have had more negative feedback in recent weeks
than before, and so I feel like people are really
feeling the crunch with costs and that's coming out those
and so it's really hard to tell. Is it a
vocal minority, is it a majority? We will find out
(08:06):
in a week from tomorrow. Well, actually we won't find
out till November sixth.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah. I think the main message in my conversations with
you both on the air and off the air, very
much off the air, have been stressing the importance of
just getting out and voting.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Yeah, people need to let us know. Like this has
been in the work since twenty eighteen, it's gotten all
the way to concept designed, to a location picked, and
the next step is do we keep moving forward? And
this is up to the voters across our eighteen towns
and we need to hear from you. And if you
don't vote, then you can't complain about it later. So
(08:51):
come on out and let us know. Do you support this,
do you support expanding access for students and building this
new center or are you feeling like it?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (09:02):
I love CTE and this is not the time.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, that was That was one of the things that
I've heard is should should we wait a little longer
for this?
Speaker 4 (09:16):
I've heard that a lot, And honestly, again, we've been
working on this since twenty eighteen. I haven't but it's
been an ongoing process and right now is when our
eighteen towns that send to us have a voice in this.
I can guarantee that the Central Vermont Career Center School
District will not be a school district when the restructuring
(09:36):
happens in Vermont. So either will be part of a
regional district or will be part of a new single
cte district or something that we don't even know what
it's going to be yet, and that new entity will
have to get up and running and we'll have to
set its priorities and figure out.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
What steps to take.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
And so if this doesn't move forward now, it goes
on a shelf and we have to figure out other
ways to you try to find access for kids.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, in my opinion, I feel that you have a
very balanced insight to all of this proposal, that there's
you're you're well spoken with with communicating both sides. I think,
(10:24):
so anyway, which is so important. I mean, we could
well list off some pros today. I think the the
obvious con is the price tag. And this is this
is not a small endeavor here, there's a price tag
(10:49):
that is huge. I think you told me last time
that I had you in here, that the original idea
is that this was going to be landing somewhere between
one hundred and fifty and two hundred million dollars, correct,
and that you were somewhat happy quote unquote that it
(11:11):
was under the one hundred and fifty million mark.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Yes, it's interesting because if you watch the posts online
where people are talking about it, there are questions, why
does it cost one hundred and forty nine million?
Speaker 3 (11:26):
What is this?
Speaker 4 (11:27):
We did break that out a little bit more in
our FAQs so folks can see it, but it's actually
like one hundred and twenty three million for the building.
There's the rest of the design costs. There's the permitting fees,
there's buying the land, there are buying the equipment that
goes into the building, and then moving everything from our
(11:49):
current location up to that. So it's the package deal.
It includes every legal fees. All of that is the
one forty nine million. So and we built in kind
of a buffer for expecting things are going to cost
a little bit more. It was a cost estimator out
of Massachusetts. I think that did the estimations and projected
what will it cost in twenty twenty seven to build this?
(12:12):
Because that's projected start date for the building is in
spring of twenty seven, to finish in the summer of
twenty nine, so that we can open the doors fall
of twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Okay, I've been asked and maybe you have two this
one for nine doesn't include the salaries of the staff,
the administration, plus the added cost that are associated with
(12:46):
these salaries for added administration, bigger career center, more teachers
in there.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
So when we people were wanting to know how much
is this going to cost me in taxes? Right, So
we just took the one forty nine million as if
we're bonding for all of it, and said, Okay, if
we paid for it for thirty years, same exact amount
every year, here's how much it would look like this
year if we were paying it back this year, which
we're not. We haven't borrowed it, just to give people
(13:16):
a sense. And then when people ask for that additional piece, well,
we have a five point one million dollar budget right
now for our center, and it would add three point
one for staffing and all the supplies and the project
budgets that we would have. So that's another I'm going
to say, I'm not remembering it correctly, so I think
(13:39):
it was twenty nine to one hundred and sixty seven,
depending on.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Where if you stack.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
So we're just stacking that on top of our current
model for six semester average. And I've also gotten a
lot of questions about why does it cost so differently,
why doesn't every town pay the same amount. It's based
on the number of students that each sending school sends
us in over three years time that sixth semester average.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Because we're a tuition base, so we have to.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Put everything into that tuition and so that's why, and
the clas of towns are different.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
So all those things impact that.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I want to get to a couple of the comments here,
but also stay on the track that we're on. We
need to use space in existing schools, spread the programs around,
doesn't need to be under one roof. Cost will rise
as it always does. Also, we can't find teachers now
to fill our jobs. Any reaction to either one of those.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
We are fully staffed right now. So I understand that
concern in some spaces, whether their centers or schools. I
also understand that there may.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Be space available in schools.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
I know when we ask in our current location, we
cannot expand any further at Spaulding High School, at least
that's what I'm told. Yes, maybe there's an opportunity to
open some things in other schools. We're considering that with
potentially bringing back human services. Is there a way we
can partner there are empty buildings that people have wanted
(15:11):
us to renovate and put students in.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
There's other logistics to that.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
So right now, sending schools are responsible for transportation to
the center. How do we make sure that they're able
to get their kids to all the places they need
to or that we can then get them from the
Spaulding High School campus where we are located, to whatever
other buildings that they need to get to and make
sure that they still get the at least the minimum
(15:38):
hours in each week for their programming.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
So it's not impossible.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
It's complicated, right and trying to make sure that you
have supervision and all those spaces that you have enough
adults that are background checked. All of that could be
and any renovations are going to cost to so there's
lots of complications. It's not impossible. It's if that's what
you're telling us on November four, that we need to
consider again because we have looked at that there is
(16:07):
no one building that's big enough for what we want
to do with the spaces that we need for our shops.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
The timing is never going to be right to ask
Vermont's people for one hundred and forty nine million dollars.
But what I think we both have heard is that
the timing now is worse than ever before. I mean,
(16:34):
we just got to comment here about the government shutdown,
snap benefits getting caught, what's happening with medicaid. I mean,
the list goes on. These are inflation is up. The
report just came out last week. This is a people
(16:55):
are feeling it hard.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Is it going to cost less in five years? Is
it going to cost less than ten years? When are
we going to find a way to make sure that
the students who want access get it and then then
they can also take the jobs in our communities that
need them, and they can also create families here. I
was at a conference last week and representative from snap
(17:22):
on Education was there, and he talked a lot about
the fact that we can't meet the demands of the
workforce need now and by twenty thirty, if things don't change,
the death rate is going to exceed birth rate, and
this problem is going to continue and we're just not
going to have people in those jobs that we need.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
People.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I don't know about you, but I'm hoping that as
I get older, that there are nurses, that there are
empts that the plumbers, and like, how many times do
I look at front porch for him and say, h
vac TECHSI needed or electrician needed? Does anyone know someone
and plumbers needed? Sometimes right after the vote, no post,
is anyone have a good plumber that they could recommend
(18:04):
that could get to me today? Yeah, it's it's a
difficult time and I can I have empathy for everyone
who's trying to pay their bills. We're all trying, and
at the same time, we need to say that this
is important to us and recognize that we're taking a
(18:26):
leap of faith to build our community stronger, not to
tear it down.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
We've all heard the conversations about how important it is
to keep from honors here. I was in a conversation
with someone about this proposed career center and we had
that conversation about Vermont needing to grow its its workforce
(18:58):
and but what you just said it just getting people
to learn these trades with the hope of them then
putting some roots in Vermont and stay and put and listen.
(19:18):
There's always going to be a negative Nelly out there.
There's there's always going to be that person that says,
you know, well, how do you how do you guarantee
that they're going to stay here. They come into the
tech center, they learn the trade, they graduate, and then
(19:43):
they realize, I can't afford to live in this state.
I'm taking my skills, my knowledge as a graduate of
the Central from our career center, and I'm getting the
hell out of here.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
It can happen so far as statistics show that the
majority of students do stay and they're employed in the
career area of that they came to study with us
and where they learn the skills. But yes, there are
some that leave every year. Some leave for college, some
leave for other opportunities. Sure, and some of them also
return after college or return after they've had the chance
(20:21):
to chase a dream potentially, sure and come back. And
we can't make any guarantees obviously. Yeah, I can say
there's a high percentage of students in CTE across the
state who stay in our state, but I can't guarantee
that every student will do that.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Of course, of course. Yeah. I mean there's some comments
coming in here, and I know that you'll go back
and read them all here at some point. But it is.
It's very obvious that we need to grow our skilled
(20:57):
workforce here in Vermont. Look at that we're coming off
of two devastating floods in the span of a year.
Everyone hears that we don't have we don't have enough contractors,
(21:17):
and if you're lucky enough to find one, you're going
to be on the wait list for a long time.
Whether it's a new roof or whether it's foundation repair
or whatever it may be. You know what I'm saying,
(21:38):
it's it's not the greatest forecast with regard to the
trades right now. In some trades, I'm sure it is.
I mean I just met a young student who just
recently graduated from the cosmetology department and is working for
(22:02):
someone else but has aspirations to start up her own
hair salon, which I mean, there it is, Yeah, there,
it is right there. That's great.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Or whether it's somebody who you know, We've got to
comment here, you know how how important it is for
for folks to graduate with these skills and then maybe
learn some basic business outlines to be able to create
their own business with those skills your entrepreneurship or yeah,
of course, or work for someone else but either one,
(22:35):
either one. You know, I'm just I'm just seeing these
comments here. They're they're they're coming in pretty hot and heavy,
which is good. We want that. Uh. Brian says, well,
I got six guys out here with leaf blowers cleaning
up before spring in Vermont. That just doesn't happen early
(23:04):
voting has.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
It's been going on for a while.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
It's been going on for what a couple.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Of weeks, at least a week?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah, okay, have you had a chance to get a
feel for.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
No.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
I think that's it's like the curse, and the benefit
of commingling is that we don't get account from individual towns. Ever,
So on November sixth, every ballot gets brought into the
very odd and they all get thrown into the machines
and tallied up, and we'll find out overall which was
(23:45):
the majority vote, which was the minority vote.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Senator Andrew Perchley, Yes, has a quote on your ad
here that says, strong schools built strong communities in a
new career center is the next step forward. Giving students
real opportunities to learn and work strengthens us all. There
(24:09):
are plenty of folks out there, and you've chatted with
them who are like, look, if we don't do something now,
we got to start planting some seeds here or worse screwed.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
There's definitely been region wide.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
I'm not just talking about Barry. I'm talking about region wide.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Sounds like it's countrywide, maybe worldwide, but it's definitely countrywide,
and it's definitely an area of concern. And if there
are other ways that we can keep building skills, we
need to look into all of them. I just want
to repeat that I have not heard anyone say that
they do not think career in technical education is the
wrong way to go. I think everyone wholeheartedly agrees that
(24:54):
this is a good option for students, and it's not
about career or college to both. It's access to anything
that that student and individual will find purpose in and
grow in and support our communities.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
And so.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
Knowing that it's really comes down to the cost. And
one of the things I've been talking about is if
we get a positive bond vote, and I don't know
that we will, but if we do, we're not going
to just throw a little party and say Okay, let's
go borrow that money. We're still going to keep looking
for how else could we fund this? So the folks
who have reached out about micro if you keep reaching
(25:32):
out to him, because I've reached out to him and
no response yet, maybe if a bunch of us do,
maybe there's some money there. Maybe there's some other organizations.
There's definitely some federal grants we're going to go for.
So there are other ways. I've had people call me
with what if businesses said every oil change, your car
dealer said, every oil change, tack on five bucks to
(25:54):
help pay.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
For the career center. I don't know if that's a
better way.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
I don't know if sponsorships are a way that we
can do that. Yes, but we're not done exploring. This
is just the way that public schools have to go
about asking for money first, and then we can go
about looking for how do we offset that so we
don't have to borrow so much so it doesn't cost
our taxpayer so much that way. Either way, I feel
like there's a cost to it, and it's an investment
(26:19):
in the community.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Tonight, you're going to open your doors over at the
Central from my career center at what time?
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Five o'clock?
Speaker 4 (26:26):
So from five to seven pm we'll be offering tours.
I'd say about every fifteen minutes tonight. Yeah, we want
people to inform their vote. Come see where we're operating
out of, see our spaces, talk to some of our teachers,
talk with staff, and really think about is this where
you need us to grow? Is there something else? What
(26:49):
other ideas do you have? But also just come and
see the space as it is. This is not taking
the place of our open house. We'll still have that
November twentieth.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Okay, what will be the difference.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
The difference is that we're going to it's going to
be like Skeleton Crew tonight, but we're going to be
taking folks through. You want to see the center as
it exists, now, we'll take you through.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
We're also have.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Our Digital Media Arts program will have a setup for
alumni to come in and if they want to be
recorded talking about what program they were in, the experiences
they had, the impact it had, and where they are now.
We're going to be recording that for use in the
next week, but also beyond that, as we look at
how our career center can support students.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
What's the So again, five o'clock tonight, five to seven,
and I'll admit the first time I stepped foot through
the Central Vermont Career Center was a very long time ago,
very long time ago, and then most recently within the
(27:55):
last I don't know, a couple of months, and I
was really like, I think I even said something to you,
maybe to Carlos that I was like ashamed with myself.
I'm like, my god, it's I just everyone should be
(28:17):
familiar with what's inside that building. It's not just Spaulding
High School. I mean, there's a lot of really impressive
stuff in there that we all should see and be
aware of. We live right here in this community. If
you haven't been inside the Central from my Career Center,
(28:42):
you really are missing out. Take the fifteen minutes and
come tonight. I think you're going to be pretty impressed.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
And then come back on November twenty at that open house,
because then the students are in every program.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
You know your way around.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
You can go get some food down in Culinary and
then check out what students are doing. I think one
of the great things that we'll be able to showcase
is there's a lot of equipment that we can take
with us too. Right, everything in the welding program, which
this is the second year of that program was bought
with the intention of being able to move it and
duplicate it so that we can have twice as much
space and that way we can support all the students
(29:20):
to weld individually at the same time.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
But right now we have eight.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
Booths and we have the air system that can hold sixteen.
So we've done some preparing for that new center potentially
to make sure that we can give more students access
and so come check out what we have going on.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
You've had students working with Habitat for Humanity.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
Right, Yeah, our building trades and electrical programs and maybe
our plumbing program, but definitely building trades in electrical worked
with Habitat for Humanity on the Hill Street house last year.
The walls of that house were actually built in the
center and then brought to the State House where they
were assembled on the lawn and then brought back and
(30:04):
put together.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Wow. Yeah, I want to talk about how many students
you have approximately right now at the Central Vermont Career Center.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
We have approximately two hundred and twenty.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Okay, And is there a wait list?
Speaker 3 (30:21):
There are some programs that have waitlists.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
At this point though, we're beyond the safety training, so
we don't tend to take in any new.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Students during the school year.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Every student in every program is required to do a
safety training that's specific to that industry, and so once
we get past those, it's really hard for a student
to come in after the fact and try to catch
up on everything they've missed.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I see in your ad here more than one hundred
and fifty students are turned away every year due to capacity.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Yeah, so four hundred and eight students applied last year.
We have two hundred and twenty students. We can fit
a few more than we have. We have two programs
that are a little under in world right now. So
we do have some programs that students just didn't apply to,
or we filled them during the applications and then students
over the summer changed their mind. But on the flip side,
(31:15):
we have programs like automotive medical Professions, electrical plumbing and heating,
and building.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Traits that we have a wait list for.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
We had more than the number of students we can
accept into the program apply we have. Some of them
are at Randolph Tech this year because we didn't have
space in our program, so we partnered with Randolph to
see if they could get them into their program, so
we tried to provide some access that way.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Are kids. First of all, I think it's fantastic that
so many youth are interested in going down a road
and learning a trade. That's freaking awesome. I wish that
I had an opportunity like this when I was in
(32:04):
high school, which wasn't here. But man, the stuff that
that that I could know and and do. I could
go on and on and on about my lack of
plumbing skills and carpentry skills, but I think that's fantastic
(32:28):
that so many want to go down that road.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
It is and we need them.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
And it's we need them. Yeah, these are lucrative careers,
quickly lucrative. The demand is high. Are students essentially, for
lack of a better term here, aging out, like by
(32:55):
the time that their numbers up to get into the
career center, they're too old.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
Yeah, well it's hard to say too old. But juniors
and seniors are the students who generally apply to our programs,
and so if they don't get in as a junior,
they have another opportunity as a senior if they choose
to try again. And then if they don't get in,
they graduate and then it costs money. Right So, under
the system that we have for education, students can attend.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
While they're in high school.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
An adult can only get into our program after we've
had filled all the seats we could with high school students.
If there's still seats available, then an adult could get
into the day program.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Comment here that you guys need to add a dental
hygienist program.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
That's the second time I've heard that in two weeks.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
So it used to be Essex Tech has it and
Randolph Tech had it briefly and they don't have it now.
And so yes, we will have one more round. We're
in the comprehensive look needs assessment right now. That's something
we have to do every year because we receive federal
funds from Perkins and that Carl D. Perkins Act, it's
(34:09):
the fifth iteration of that Act, has some pretty rigorous
standards that we have to assess ourselves against, and we
have to look at labor market data. We have to
look at what our students want, what students who don't
attend our center want, what community and industry partners need.
There is a community survey out there. It's most recently
been in our newsletter. We'll make sure we have some
(34:30):
posters up tonight for folks to just scan the QR
code and fill us in with information. I'll make sure
I get it to you too, JD. But we need
to gather that information every two years, so there will
be the opportunity to shift some of that programming, especially
the new programming, if we need to. And if you've
heard any of the times when we've talked about it
at forums. The second floor where there's exploratory, all of
(34:54):
those are flex labs, so they can shift into whatever
we need, and many of the other programming will all
s so be flexible so that as things change. We
know AI is going to take some jobs, right, but
it's not going to take all the jobs. And so
as jobs shift and we start to realize what what
are the new skills that folks need and what is
the where are our students landing in the workforce, we
(35:17):
can shift our programming for that.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Yeah. I was going to ask about technology, and you know,
all of these careers, all of these trades are I
think every single one of them is affected by some
form of technology. I mean, things are constantly changing, improving efficiency,
(35:41):
whatever it may be even if you're you know, in cosmeantology.
I mean, there's just always technology that's that's there on
the forefront. You've got to learn it, you've got to
embrace it. Now another comment here and it's from Glenn,
(36:02):
and this one's been asked before, and we talked about
this the last time you were on how long is
it going to take this new building? To build this
new building and actually use it and just remind folks
once again exactly where it is. Oh, okay, so where
it would go.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Yeah, the timeline on this building is that if we
get a positivete this November, then we would move forward
with the engineering designs and a project manager and it
would break ground in I think March of twenty seven
and be done in May of twenty nine and open
doors fall of twenty nine. So there's still some build
(36:41):
up that we need to do in potentially other locations
up to that point to try to get more kids
access in the interim. And the location is in Graniteville,
so easy access for a lot of our buses coming
off of the Interstate to just get off Exit six,
go straight down, right back up, and it's not in
(37:02):
a flood zone.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yeah, I remember you mentioned that last time. Yeah, eight
hundred hours each Central from Out Career Center students spends
practicing their skills during the school year. This is right
off here your site here. Ninety nine percent of students
understand that CVCC is preparing them for college and or employment.
(37:27):
Three hundred and thirty college credits earned across six programs.
Ninety six percent of parents value the learning experience CVCC
provides to their children. One hundred and thirteen students earned
two hundred and fifty eight industry recognized credentials, and almost
(37:49):
twenty seven thousand hours of Central from Out Career Center
students spending in co op positions with local BUIS businesses
just in the calendar year twenty three twenty four. You've
also you also just had a huge press conference and
(38:10):
there's some collaboration in partnership with District six. And tell
me about that. What's that all about.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
It's really cool. Over the years, emergency services programming outside
of CTE has been in career technical education has been
for adults that at their fire station or at the
local shop, they do their trainings to be re certified
or certified in the first place. If you're interested in
joining and so they approached us and basically said, hey,
(38:45):
what if you provide it here in the space where
you're already doing emergency services training, and you offer it
for adults and we won't have.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
To travel so far. So folks who are interested in.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
Getting their paramedic we're having to travel many hours to
access their courses. We'll be offering that on site at
the Career Center starting in January, and so there's opportunities
for folks to come in and get their certifications and
trainings at our center with the same staff that they
might have had for instructors before. We're using the funds
(39:17):
that are available to District six and District eight from
the state and federal grants, and we're going to provide
that training in our center. And one of the things
that's great about it is they don't have to buy
the equipment that we already have. We don't have to
have the redundancy, they don't have to be using their
firehouse for the training. We have a classroom for that,
We have everything set up. So this allows folks to
(39:39):
come in and get certified or re certified in our center.
We are transitioning over to taking that over so there's
some that were scheduled already some training, So there's one
at I think Norwich University next month that's going to
stay because it had already been scheduled, but we're transitioning
everything over to the Career Center so that all the
training can happen for District six and District date and
(40:03):
other folks that might sign up of their space.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
That's got a lot of people applauding. I mean, that's
really great.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
And it's a pilot, so if it works in our region,
it might be something that happens at other CTEs across
the state to support emergency services and there's a definite
high need there.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
This is something that robots are just not going to
be able to replace. So cool.
Speaker 4 (40:35):
I'm holding this because it just wants to fall.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, yeah, I want you to, and I'm going to
play this here. The last time I had John, there
was some really impressive photos. Can you kind of walk
us through this a little bit? This is all like
(40:59):
a virtual ah.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
Yes, So this is a virtual tour of the three
D concept. It doesn't take you into.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
The shop spaces.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
Which I think is a little unfortunate, but at least
it gives you a sense of what the building looks like,
and you can see that the base would be made
of granite, which isn't like Honor Graniteville.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
We're there.
Speaker 4 (41:21):
You enter the doors and there's the administration to the right,
and to the left culinary, baking, arts, and cosmetology. Those
are where we get customers, so they're in that first
set of doors, and then you come through and this
is our flexible open meeting space, so this allows us
to have a cafeteria there and any presentations and school
wide events. This hallway is the Health and Natural Sciences hallway,
(41:44):
so you can see there's program spaces. They have classrooms
and their lab spaces, and then there's this flexible space
in between that allows them to collaborate across programs. This
upstairs part is the one I was talking about with
all the flex labs. This is our exploratory programming ninth
and tenth graders, and each of the lab spaces can
be altered to fit whatever they're studying at the time,
(42:06):
So that's really exciting for us to think about what
they might be able to study across our center. All
those different pieces. We're back into that central location in
the middle where the cafeteria, the auditorium, all of.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
That in one space.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
We'll go across the top and on the left you'll
see that there's the business it and then there's digital media, arts, videography,
and graphic design, and then we move into the construction trades.
And by opening up the space and plumbing and heating, electrical,
and building trades all next to each other, we can
have more students, we can have more programming, we can
have an outside workspace that we don't currently have to
(42:44):
build a home. You also see there was advanced manufacturing
and welding there, and then straight ahead is where the
transportation segment would be with automotive and potentially diesel or autobody,
depends what we come out of our comprehensive local needs
assessment identifying as needs for this center. And then the
building is supposed to be a net zero so that's
(43:04):
why you see there's on the roof the solar panels
and there's gonna be geothermal, so it's it's meant to
be a net zero building. Our programs are not net zero,
welders are not net zero, but the building will be.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
This is really, uh, that's really impressive to see that
it's amazing. And again this is in upper Graniteville.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Yeah, yep, Baptist Street.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
And can you give us just a little idea of
exactly where that is.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
So if you drive past the old visitor center for
Rock of Ages, I don't believe that's open anymore, and
kind of go up around the corner, there is a
the road takes a sharp left to go through Graniteville,
the village, and if you go straight instead of taking
that sharp left, that's Baptist Street. And there are actually
on that twenty seven acre piece of property. There are
(44:01):
three access points to it, which is what makes it
a wonderful opportunity for us. We're using about half of
it for the building. We can use some of the
land for natural resources and for our other programs, but
there's also a potential to maybe find alternate uses.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
For that space.
Speaker 4 (44:18):
There's the Hartford Career Center bought land long ago that
they've basically been their building trades has built a house
every two years around a cul de sac, And so
is there an opportunity for us to do something like that?
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Just got a question if this goes down, will there
still be a program? It's baulding.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
We don't have any plan to close our current space,
so we would still keep this going. We just were
looking for more access for students, so we would be
looking at how can we expand to make sure that
the students who are interested can access CTE.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
How would that space be used the current space?
Speaker 4 (44:58):
Ah, if we leave, that's a good question. I think
Barry Unified Union School District is thinking about that. I
think they've got someone who's talking with them about the
use of all their buildings and how they might transition
or use spaces differently.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Would there be additional trades added to the current curriculum, yes,
can you do? You have that off the top of
your head.
Speaker 4 (45:29):
So there's some that are assumed in that design, and
it could change based on the comprehensive local needs assessment.
But if I'm trying, I'm going to walk through the
hallways to think about that. So animal science bringing back
early education, human services bringing back natural resources.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Animal science, that tech.
Speaker 4 (45:52):
Yeah, in the next the business it would be new.
Advanced manufacturing would be new, so we'd be able to
duplicate double our electrical, our plumbing and heating, our building trades,
our automotive, our medical, professions.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
And then that diesel or autobody would be new.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Wow, what what what do we do? What do you?
What are you going to do? If this vote doesn't
pass on November fourth, do we go back to the
drawing board? What happens at that point?
Speaker 3 (46:31):
I don't get to make this decision.
Speaker 4 (46:33):
So the board gets to make this decision, and they're
the ones that got to make the decision about moving
forward with this bond vote too. And so we have
moved our facilities meeting from November four to November sixth
so that we will have the results of the vote
to identify just that what are the next steps? I
(46:53):
can imagine that there's a range of possibilities. We could
further explore some of the things that other folk have
talked to us about. We could consider a second opportunity
in March.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
We could just say, let's wait.
Speaker 4 (47:08):
And see what happens. I don't know what, I don't
know what the board will decide to do.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Got a lot of a lot of time, a lot
of hours put into preparing for this and showcasing this
to the community to show them what not only what
this would look like, but what it would do long
term for our region. Hillary's asking who is instructing these
(47:37):
these courses. Teachers are hard enough to come by in
the state, which is a real valid question here. But
then you know, it would bring in more people, more instructors,
more teachers to help our economy, and maybe we could
(47:58):
get some workforce that'd be great, dialed in a little
better than it is right now.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
Obviously, we would have to go through the process, the
hiring process, to find out if there would be a
difficulty in that. I can tell you that I've had
outreach for almost every single one of those programs of
if you open that, I would love to come and
teach there, and I just say, great, it's wonderful that
you're interested. We would have a rigorous process for hiring
(48:26):
an instructor, as we do always.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
Yeah, is there anything else that we're missing here?
Speaker 4 (48:35):
If you have not seen the ad that the Digital
Media Arts students have done, that that one is just
near and dear to my heart because it's our current
students who created that video, with current students in some
of those programs, and also some old footage from previous students,
and it's just great to see that our students are already,
(48:57):
you know, doing that editing process and working with across
programs together.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
Carlos is doing such a great job with digital media
arts there. I mean, he's just so impressive, so impressive
what he's doing. I'm gonna you're gonna help me find
that so that I can post it up here and
show people what they're doing here. And again they'll be
(49:23):
there tonight.
Speaker 4 (49:24):
Yeah, five, five to seven tonight tours. There's also a
forum for Barry City at the Aldridge Library on Wednesday
night so that you can learn about the other bond
items there. It's not just a career center that's on
the ballot for Barry City, sure, so that that has
an opportunity. I think that's five to six thirty on
(49:47):
Wednesday at the Aldridge Library.
Speaker 3 (49:50):
Okay, I'm going to be on WDEV.
Speaker 4 (49:52):
Tomorrow, So thank you JD for having me today and
give me a little practice before I.
Speaker 3 (49:57):
Show up there.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
I'm glad you. I'm glad you reminded me that great
people over there and they're going to take obviously very
good care of you. And you know what, here's the thing.
You don't have to worry about having a bad hair day.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
That's true. I didn't even check the.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
Hair was great today, but I'm just saying that's radio.
Speaker 4 (50:19):
Yeah, and callers will be calling in and so if
you didn't get your question answered today and tune into
wdev at I think ten am tomorrow and call in
and maybe we can answer it there and I'll take
a look at all the comments.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Rob Roker it's going to be the host of that. Yeah,
very very smart guy. And I think there's a good
amount of understanding of what the what the concerns are
for this, but also which I think are quite obvious,
but also what the long term residual effects of this
(51:01):
new career center could be for decades and generations.
Speaker 4 (51:06):
Yeah, and it's not just for our high school students, right,
adult students as well. And how else can we support
the community with this center?
Speaker 2 (51:15):
Yeah, exactly, great point. Thank you so much for coming.
Speaker 3 (51:20):
In here, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
I'll be watching, I'll be listening and paying attention, as
I know so many others will. Thank you again, Jody
very much.
Speaker 3 (51:30):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
Have a great day, everybody. We'll be back tomorrow morning
right here where you are now aired now podcast. Be well,
God blessed,
P S S S S S S S S S
S S S.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Oh boy, here we go headfirst into a new week.
We got Game three of the World Series tonight. I
will be sitting on the couch with a warm blank
it tonight in my new little puzzle table and a
(02:07):
hot cup of something and kicking back and watching the
World Series tonight. Yeah. I'm not a fan of either
one of them, but I always tend to kind of
go for the underdog. I would love to see the
blue Jays win this thing, just because the Dodgers have
won enough and the Blue Jays have and in what
(02:29):
thirty two years something like that. It's so nice to
have you on board. Thank you ever so much for
tuning in this morning, getting your work week started with me.
We've got some cloudy skies and I'm hearing about the
rain that's supposed to be coming in what Thursday, Friday,
(02:51):
more steady on Friday, which is Halloween. And Lily asked
me this morning, is Halloween going to be canceled or postponed?
And it's a resounding no. We'll alter the costume, we'll
get the umbrella out, We'll do whatever we have to do. Rain, snow, wind,
(03:14):
whatever Mother Nature brings, we will be out on Halloween
night collecting candy. Why because we haven't collected enough candy
lately with all the trunk or treating over the last
couple of weeks now. And I have, admittedly I have
(03:36):
snuck a few twigs without anyone knowing about it, and
a couple of full size Reese's peanut butter cups too.
I'm not gonna lie. This is what dat's do. But anyway,
a lot to get to this week. Our community calendar
(03:58):
is so full. This past weekend was amazing. No matter
what you did, where you went, the weather was on
your side for the most part. Nichael's Haunted Grounds on
Saturday night was incredible. But there was just so much happening,
(04:20):
so much happening Maulaween on Friday, it was It was
just a busy, busy weekend. Got out on the dirt
bike with Lily yesterday with Bogie Brothers doing some dirt
bike trick or treating, which is was my first time
doing that, which was interesting and fun, a lot of fun,
(04:46):
a little cold, little damp, but but for the most part,
it was an incredible experience with Bogie Brothers yesterday, so
We have some great guests lined up for you this week.
(05:07):
Already it's packed full, not only this week, but also
next week, and I think even the weekend after that.
It is just so busy right now. If you have
seen the world lately, you probably know that there's a
(05:32):
huge ad in there that says vote in November fourth
with a huge color ad for the Central from Our
Career Center. This is the Central from My Career Center
that could double capacity and train the next generation of
(05:57):
builders and nurses, tech pros, electricians going forward into our
future here in Central Vermont. Jody Emerson is with me
this morning. She's the executive director of the Central from
(06:19):
My Career Center, the existing one right now over at Spalding.
Good morning and welcome. I'm so glad you're here.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
You're back, you came back, and I'm glad. I really
enjoyed our previous conversation that we had a couple of
weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I think when you were maybe a month ago. It
was great.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I should have known about the twigs and receis though
I could have brought you some.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Do you have plenty?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I do?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Do you have copious amounts over there?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
We have some I don't know about Kopias.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
You ever put some some twigs on some vanilla ice cream?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I have not tried that.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Try it. It's amazing. And anyway, yeah, I want to
I want to thank you for coming back. We had
a great conversation a couple of weeks ago. November fourth
is coming up really really fast.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
It's going to be here a week from tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Is it a week from yeah, next Tuesday, a week
from tomorrow, or get there.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
A week from tomorrow? All right, how are you feeling
about this proposed new central from my career center? There's yeah,
I'll let you answer that first.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
I if you're wondering how I'm feeling about how the
vote will go, I really don't know.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I really don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
We definitely have had more negative feedback in recent weeks
than before, and so I feel like people are really
feeling the crunch with costs and that's coming out those
and so it's really hard to tell. Is it a
vocal minority, is it a majority? We will find out
(08:06):
in a week from tomorrow. Well, actually we won't find
out till November sixth.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah. I think the main message in my conversations with
you both on the air and off the air, very
much off the air, have been stressing the importance of
just getting out and voting.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Yeah, people need to let us know. Like this has
been in the work since twenty eighteen, it's gotten all
the way to concept designed, to a location picked, and
the next step is do we keep moving forward? And
this is up to the voters across our eighteen towns
and we need to hear from you. And if you
don't vote, then you can't complain about it later. So
(08:51):
come on out and let us know. Do you support this,
do you support expanding access for students and building this
new center or are you feeling like it?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (09:02):
I love CTE and this is not the time.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, that was That was one of the things that
I've heard is should should we wait a little longer
for this?
Speaker 4 (09:16):
I've heard that a lot, And honestly, again, we've been
working on this since twenty eighteen. I haven't but it's
been an ongoing process and right now is when our
eighteen towns that send to us have a voice in this.
I can guarantee that the Central Vermont Career Center School
District will not be a school district when the restructuring
(09:36):
happens in Vermont. So either will be part of a
regional district or will be part of a new single
cte district or something that we don't even know what
it's going to be yet, and that new entity will
have to get up and running and we'll have to
set its priorities and figure out.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
What steps to take.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
And so if this doesn't move forward now, it goes
on a shelf and we have to figure out other
ways to you try to find access for kids.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, in my opinion, I feel that you have a
very balanced insight to all of this proposal, that there's
you're you're well spoken with with communicating both sides. I think,
(10:24):
so anyway, which is so important. I mean, we could
well list off some pros today. I think the the
obvious con is the price tag. And this is this
is not a small endeavor here, there's a price tag
(10:49):
that is huge. I think you told me last time
that I had you in here, that the original idea
is that this was going to be landing somewhere between
one hundred and fifty and two hundred million dollars, correct,
and that you were somewhat happy quote unquote that it
(11:11):
was under the one hundred and fifty million mark.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Yes, it's interesting because if you watch the posts online
where people are talking about it, there are questions, why
does it cost one hundred and forty nine million?
Speaker 3 (11:26):
What is this?
Speaker 4 (11:27):
We did break that out a little bit more in
our FAQs so folks can see it, but it's actually
like one hundred and twenty three million for the building.
There's the rest of the design costs. There's the permitting fees,
there's buying the land, there are buying the equipment that
goes into the building, and then moving everything from our
(11:49):
current location up to that. So it's the package deal.
It includes every legal fees. All of that is the
one forty nine million. So and we built in kind
of a buffer for expecting things are going to cost
a little bit more. It was a cost estimator out
of Massachusetts. I think that did the estimations and projected
what will it cost in twenty twenty seven to build this?
(12:12):
Because that's projected start date for the building is in
spring of twenty seven, to finish in the summer of
twenty nine, so that we can open the doors fall
of twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Okay, I've been asked and maybe you have two this
one for nine doesn't include the salaries of the staff,
the administration, plus the added cost that are associated with
(12:46):
these salaries for added administration, bigger career center, more teachers
in there.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
So when we people were wanting to know how much
is this going to cost me in taxes? Right, So
we just took the one forty nine million as if
we're bonding for all of it, and said, Okay, if
we paid for it for thirty years, same exact amount
every year, here's how much it would look like this
year if we were paying it back this year, which
we're not. We haven't borrowed it, just to give people
(13:16):
a sense. And then when people ask for that additional piece, well,
we have a five point one million dollar budget right
now for our center, and it would add three point
one for staffing and all the supplies and the project
budgets that we would have. So that's another I'm going
to say, I'm not remembering it correctly, so I think
(13:39):
it was twenty nine to one hundred and sixty seven,
depending on.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Where if you stack.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
So we're just stacking that on top of our current
model for six semester average. And I've also gotten a
lot of questions about why does it cost so differently,
why doesn't every town pay the same amount. It's based
on the number of students that each sending school sends
us in over three years time that sixth semester average.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Because we're a tuition base, so we have to.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Put everything into that tuition and so that's why, and
the clas of towns are different.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
So all those things impact that.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I want to get to a couple of the comments here,
but also stay on the track that we're on. We
need to use space in existing schools, spread the programs around,
doesn't need to be under one roof. Cost will rise
as it always does. Also, we can't find teachers now
to fill our jobs. Any reaction to either one of those.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
We are fully staffed right now. So I understand that
concern in some spaces, whether their centers or schools. I
also understand that there may.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Be space available in schools.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
I know when we ask in our current location, we
cannot expand any further at Spaulding High School, at least
that's what I'm told. Yes, maybe there's an opportunity to
open some things in other schools. We're considering that with
potentially bringing back human services. Is there a way we
can partner there are empty buildings that people have wanted
(15:11):
us to renovate and put students in.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
There's other logistics to that.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
So right now, sending schools are responsible for transportation to
the center. How do we make sure that they're able
to get their kids to all the places they need
to or that we can then get them from the
Spaulding High School campus where we are located, to whatever
other buildings that they need to get to and make
sure that they still get the at least the minimum
(15:38):
hours in each week for their programming.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
So it's not impossible.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
It's complicated, right and trying to make sure that you
have supervision and all those spaces that you have enough
adults that are background checked. All of that could be
and any renovations are going to cost to so there's
lots of complications. It's not impossible. It's if that's what
you're telling us on November four, that we need to
consider again because we have looked at that there is
(16:07):
no one building that's big enough for what we want
to do with the spaces that we need for our shops.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
The timing is never going to be right to ask
Vermont's people for one hundred and forty nine million dollars.
But what I think we both have heard is that
the timing now is worse than ever before. I mean,
(16:34):
we just got to comment here about the government shutdown,
snap benefits getting caught, what's happening with medicaid. I mean,
the list goes on. These are inflation is up. The
report just came out last week. This is a people
(16:55):
are feeling it hard.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Is it going to cost less in five years? Is
it going to cost less than ten years? When are
we going to find a way to make sure that
the students who want access get it and then then
they can also take the jobs in our communities that
need them, and they can also create families here. I
was at a conference last week and representative from snap
(17:22):
on Education was there, and he talked a lot about
the fact that we can't meet the demands of the
workforce need now and by twenty thirty, if things don't change,
the death rate is going to exceed birth rate, and
this problem is going to continue and we're just not
going to have people in those jobs that we need.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
People.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I don't know about you, but I'm hoping that as
I get older, that there are nurses, that there are
empts that the plumbers, and like, how many times do
I look at front porch for him and say, h
vac TECHSI needed or electrician needed? Does anyone know someone
and plumbers needed? Sometimes right after the vote, no post,
is anyone have a good plumber that they could recommend
(18:04):
that could get to me today? Yeah, it's it's a
difficult time and I can I have empathy for everyone
who's trying to pay their bills. We're all trying, and
at the same time, we need to say that this
is important to us and recognize that we're taking a
(18:26):
leap of faith to build our community stronger, not to
tear it down.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
We've all heard the conversations about how important it is
to keep from honors here. I was in a conversation
with someone about this proposed career center and we had
that conversation about Vermont needing to grow its its workforce
(18:58):
and but what you just said it just getting people
to learn these trades with the hope of them then
putting some roots in Vermont and stay and put and listen.
(19:18):
There's always going to be a negative Nelly out there.
There's there's always going to be that person that says,
you know, well, how do you how do you guarantee
that they're going to stay here. They come into the
tech center, they learn the trade, they graduate, and then
(19:43):
they realize, I can't afford to live in this state.
I'm taking my skills, my knowledge as a graduate of
the Central from our career center, and I'm getting the
hell out of here.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
It can happen so far as statistics show that the
majority of students do stay and they're employed in the
career area of that they came to study with us
and where they learn the skills. But yes, there are
some that leave every year. Some leave for college, some
leave for other opportunities. Sure, and some of them also
return after college or return after they've had the chance
(20:21):
to chase a dream potentially, sure and come back. And
we can't make any guarantees obviously. Yeah, I can say
there's a high percentage of students in CTE across the
state who stay in our state, but I can't guarantee
that every student will do that.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Of course, of course. Yeah. I mean there's some comments
coming in here, and I know that you'll go back
and read them all here at some point. But it is.
It's very obvious that we need to grow our skilled
(20:57):
workforce here in Vermont. Look at that we're coming off
of two devastating floods in the span of a year.
Everyone hears that we don't have we don't have enough contractors,
(21:17):
and if you're lucky enough to find one, you're going
to be on the wait list for a long time.
Whether it's a new roof or whether it's foundation repair
or whatever it may be. You know what I'm saying,
(21:38):
it's it's not the greatest forecast with regard to the
trades right now. In some trades, I'm sure it is.
I mean I just met a young student who just
recently graduated from the cosmetology department and is working for
(22:02):
someone else but has aspirations to start up her own
hair salon, which I mean, there it is, Yeah, there,
it is right there. That's great.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Or whether it's somebody who you know, We've got to
comment here, you know how how important it is for
for folks to graduate with these skills and then maybe
learn some basic business outlines to be able to create
their own business with those skills your entrepreneurship or yeah,
of course, or work for someone else but either one,
(22:35):
either one. You know, I'm just I'm just seeing these
comments here. They're they're they're coming in pretty hot and heavy,
which is good. We want that. Uh. Brian says, well,
I got six guys out here with leaf blowers cleaning
up before spring in Vermont. That just doesn't happen early
(23:04):
voting has.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
It's been going on for a while.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
It's been going on for what a couple.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Of weeks, at least a week?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah, okay, have you had a chance to get a
feel for.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
No.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
I think that's it's like the curse, and the benefit
of commingling is that we don't get account from individual towns. Ever,
So on November sixth, every ballot gets brought into the
very odd and they all get thrown into the machines
and tallied up, and we'll find out overall which was
(23:45):
the majority vote, which was the minority vote.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Senator Andrew Perchley, Yes, has a quote on your ad
here that says, strong schools built strong communities in a
new career center is the next step forward. Giving students
real opportunities to learn and work strengthens us all. There
(24:09):
are plenty of folks out there, and you've chatted with
them who are like, look, if we don't do something now,
we got to start planting some seeds here or worse screwed.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
There's definitely been region wide.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
I'm not just talking about Barry. I'm talking about region wide.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Sounds like it's countrywide, maybe worldwide, but it's definitely countrywide,
and it's definitely an area of concern. And if there
are other ways that we can keep building skills, we
need to look into all of them. I just want
to repeat that I have not heard anyone say that
they do not think career in technical education is the
wrong way to go. I think everyone wholeheartedly agrees that
(24:54):
this is a good option for students, and it's not
about career or college to both. It's access to anything
that that student and individual will find purpose in and
grow in and support our communities.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
And so.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
Knowing that it's really comes down to the cost. And
one of the things I've been talking about is if
we get a positive bond vote, and I don't know
that we will, but if we do, we're not going
to just throw a little party and say Okay, let's
go borrow that money. We're still going to keep looking
for how else could we fund this? So the folks
who have reached out about micro if you keep reaching
(25:32):
out to him, because I've reached out to him and
no response yet, maybe if a bunch of us do,
maybe there's some money there. Maybe there's some other organizations.
There's definitely some federal grants we're going to go for.
So there are other ways. I've had people call me
with what if businesses said every oil change, your car
dealer said, every oil change, tack on five bucks to
(25:54):
help pay.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
For the career center. I don't know if that's a
better way.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
I don't know if sponsorships are a way that we
can do that. Yes, but we're not done exploring. This
is just the way that public schools have to go
about asking for money first, and then we can go
about looking for how do we offset that so we
don't have to borrow so much so it doesn't cost
our taxpayer so much that way. Either way, I feel
like there's a cost to it, and it's an investment
(26:19):
in the community.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Tonight, you're going to open your doors over at the
Central from my career center at what time?
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Five o'clock?
Speaker 4 (26:26):
So from five to seven pm we'll be offering tours.
I'd say about every fifteen minutes tonight. Yeah, we want
people to inform their vote. Come see where we're operating
out of, see our spaces, talk to some of our teachers,
talk with staff, and really think about is this where
you need us to grow? Is there something else? What
(26:49):
other ideas do you have? But also just come and
see the space as it is. This is not taking
the place of our open house. We'll still have that
November twentieth.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Okay, what will be the difference.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
The difference is that we're going to it's going to
be like Skeleton Crew tonight, but we're going to be
taking folks through. You want to see the center as
it exists, now, we'll take you through.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
We're also have.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Our Digital Media Arts program will have a setup for
alumni to come in and if they want to be
recorded talking about what program they were in, the experiences
they had, the impact it had, and where they are now.
We're going to be recording that for use in the
next week, but also beyond that, as we look at
how our career center can support students.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
What's the So again, five o'clock tonight, five to seven,
and I'll admit the first time I stepped foot through
the Central Vermont Career Center was a very long time ago,
very long time ago, and then most recently within the
(27:55):
last I don't know, a couple of months, and I
was really like, I think I even said something to you,
maybe to Carlos that I was like ashamed with myself.
I'm like, my god, it's I just everyone should be
(28:17):
familiar with what's inside that building. It's not just Spaulding
High School. I mean, there's a lot of really impressive
stuff in there that we all should see and be
aware of. We live right here in this community. If
you haven't been inside the Central from my Career Center,
(28:42):
you really are missing out. Take the fifteen minutes and
come tonight. I think you're going to be pretty impressed.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
And then come back on November twenty at that open house,
because then the students are in every program.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
You know your way around.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
You can go get some food down in Culinary and
then check out what students are doing. I think one
of the great things that we'll be able to showcase
is there's a lot of equipment that we can take
with us too. Right, everything in the welding program, which
this is the second year of that program was bought
with the intention of being able to move it and
duplicate it so that we can have twice as much
space and that way we can support all the students
(29:20):
to weld individually at the same time.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
But right now we have eight.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
Booths and we have the air system that can hold sixteen.
So we've done some preparing for that new center potentially
to make sure that we can give more students access
and so come check out what we have going on.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
You've had students working with Habitat for Humanity.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
Right, Yeah, our building trades and electrical programs and maybe
our plumbing program, but definitely building trades in electrical worked
with Habitat for Humanity on the Hill Street house last year.
The walls of that house were actually built in the
center and then brought to the State House where they
were assembled on the lawn and then brought back and
(30:04):
put together.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Wow. Yeah, I want to talk about how many students
you have approximately right now at the Central Vermont Career Center.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
We have approximately two hundred and twenty.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Okay, And is there a wait list?
Speaker 3 (30:21):
There are some programs that have waitlists.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
At this point though, we're beyond the safety training, so
we don't tend to take in any new.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Students during the school year.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Every student in every program is required to do a
safety training that's specific to that industry, and so once
we get past those, it's really hard for a student
to come in after the fact and try to catch
up on everything they've missed.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I see in your ad here more than one hundred
and fifty students are turned away every year due to capacity.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Yeah, so four hundred and eight students applied last year.
We have two hundred and twenty students. We can fit
a few more than we have. We have two programs
that are a little under in world right now. So
we do have some programs that students just didn't apply to,
or we filled them during the applications and then students
over the summer changed their mind. But on the flip side,
(31:15):
we have programs like automotive medical Professions, electrical plumbing and heating,
and building.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Traits that we have a wait list for.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
We had more than the number of students we can
accept into the program apply we have. Some of them
are at Randolph Tech this year because we didn't have
space in our program, so we partnered with Randolph to
see if they could get them into their program, so
we tried to provide some access that way.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Are kids. First of all, I think it's fantastic that
so many youth are interested in going down a road
and learning a trade. That's freaking awesome. I wish that
I had an opportunity like this when I was in
(32:04):
high school, which wasn't here. But man, the stuff that
that that I could know and and do. I could
go on and on and on about my lack of
plumbing skills and carpentry skills, but I think that's fantastic
(32:28):
that so many want to go down that road.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
It is and we need them.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
And it's we need them. Yeah, these are lucrative careers,
quickly lucrative. The demand is high. Are students essentially, for
lack of a better term here, aging out, like by
(32:55):
the time that their numbers up to get into the
career center, they're too old.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
Yeah, well it's hard to say too old. But juniors
and seniors are the students who generally apply to our programs,
and so if they don't get in as a junior,
they have another opportunity as a senior if they choose
to try again. And then if they don't get in,
they graduate and then it costs money. Right So, under
the system that we have for education, students can attend.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
While they're in high school.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
An adult can only get into our program after we've
had filled all the seats we could with high school students.
If there's still seats available, then an adult could get
into the day program.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Comment here that you guys need to add a dental
hygienist program.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
That's the second time I've heard that in two weeks.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
So it used to be Essex Tech has it and
Randolph Tech had it briefly and they don't have it now.
And so yes, we will have one more round. We're
in the comprehensive look needs assessment right now. That's something
we have to do every year because we receive federal
funds from Perkins and that Carl D. Perkins Act, it's
(34:09):
the fifth iteration of that Act, has some pretty rigorous
standards that we have to assess ourselves against, and we
have to look at labor market data. We have to
look at what our students want, what students who don't
attend our center want, what community and industry partners need.
There is a community survey out there. It's most recently
been in our newsletter. We'll make sure we have some
(34:30):
posters up tonight for folks to just scan the QR
code and fill us in with information. I'll make sure
I get it to you too, JD. But we need
to gather that information every two years, so there will
be the opportunity to shift some of that programming, especially
the new programming, if we need to. And if you've
heard any of the times when we've talked about it
at forums. The second floor where there's exploratory, all of
(34:54):
those are flex labs, so they can shift into whatever
we need, and many of the other programming will all
s so be flexible so that as things change. We
know AI is going to take some jobs, right, but
it's not going to take all the jobs. And so
as jobs shift and we start to realize what what
are the new skills that folks need and what is
the where are our students landing in the workforce, we
(35:17):
can shift our programming for that.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Yeah. I was going to ask about technology, and you know,
all of these careers, all of these trades are I
think every single one of them is affected by some
form of technology. I mean, things are constantly changing, improving efficiency,
(35:41):
whatever it may be even if you're you know, in cosmeantology.
I mean, there's just always technology that's that's there on
the forefront. You've got to learn it, you've got to
embrace it. Now another comment here and it's from Glenn,
(36:02):
and this one's been asked before, and we talked about
this the last time you were on how long is
it going to take this new building? To build this
new building and actually use it and just remind folks
once again exactly where it is. Oh, okay, so where
it would go.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Yeah, the timeline on this building is that if we
get a positivete this November, then we would move forward
with the engineering designs and a project manager and it
would break ground in I think March of twenty seven
and be done in May of twenty nine and open
doors fall of twenty nine. So there's still some build
(36:41):
up that we need to do in potentially other locations
up to that point to try to get more kids
access in the interim. And the location is in Graniteville,
so easy access for a lot of our buses coming
off of the Interstate to just get off Exit six,
go straight down, right back up, and it's not in
(37:02):
a flood zone.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yeah, I remember you mentioned that last time. Yeah, eight
hundred hours each Central from Out Career Center students spends
practicing their skills during the school year. This is right
off here your site here. Ninety nine percent of students
understand that CVCC is preparing them for college and or employment.
(37:27):
Three hundred and thirty college credits earned across six programs.
Ninety six percent of parents value the learning experience CVCC
provides to their children. One hundred and thirteen students earned
two hundred and fifty eight industry recognized credentials, and almost
(37:49):
twenty seven thousand hours of Central from Out Career Center
students spending in co op positions with local BUIS businesses
just in the calendar year twenty three twenty four. You've
also you also just had a huge press conference and
(38:10):
there's some collaboration in partnership with District six. And tell
me about that. What's that all about.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
It's really cool. Over the years, emergency services programming outside
of CTE has been in career technical education has been
for adults that at their fire station or at the
local shop, they do their trainings to be re certified
or certified in the first place. If you're interested in
joining and so they approached us and basically said, hey,
(38:45):
what if you provide it here in the space where
you're already doing emergency services training, and you offer it
for adults and we won't have.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
To travel so far. So folks who are interested in.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
Getting their paramedic we're having to travel many hours to
access their courses. We'll be offering that on site at
the Career Center starting in January, and so there's opportunities
for folks to come in and get their certifications and
trainings at our center with the same staff that they
might have had for instructors before. We're using the funds
(39:17):
that are available to District six and District eight from
the state and federal grants, and we're going to provide
that training in our center. And one of the things
that's great about it is they don't have to buy
the equipment that we already have. We don't have to
have the redundancy, they don't have to be using their
firehouse for the training. We have a classroom for that,
We have everything set up. So this allows folks to
(39:39):
come in and get certified or re certified in our center.
We are transitioning over to taking that over so there's
some that were scheduled already some training, So there's one
at I think Norwich University next month that's going to
stay because it had already been scheduled, but we're transitioning
everything over to the Career Center so that all the
training can happen for District six and District date and
(40:03):
other folks that might sign up of their space.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
That's got a lot of people applauding. I mean, that's
really great.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
And it's a pilot, so if it works in our region,
it might be something that happens at other CTEs across
the state to support emergency services and there's a definite
high need there.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
This is something that robots are just not going to
be able to replace. So cool.
Speaker 4 (40:35):
I'm holding this because it just wants to fall.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, yeah, I want you to, and I'm going to
play this here. The last time I had John, there
was some really impressive photos. Can you kind of walk
us through this a little bit? This is all like
(40:59):
a virtual ah.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
Yes, So this is a virtual tour of the three
D concept. It doesn't take you into.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
The shop spaces.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
Which I think is a little unfortunate, but at least
it gives you a sense of what the building looks like,
and you can see that the base would be made
of granite, which isn't like Honor Graniteville.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
We're there.
Speaker 4 (41:21):
You enter the doors and there's the administration to the right,
and to the left culinary, baking, arts, and cosmetology. Those
are where we get customers, so they're in that first
set of doors, and then you come through and this
is our flexible open meeting space, so this allows us
to have a cafeteria there and any presentations and school
wide events. This hallway is the Health and Natural Sciences hallway,
(41:44):
so you can see there's program spaces. They have classrooms
and their lab spaces, and then there's this flexible space
in between that allows them to collaborate across programs. This
upstairs part is the one I was talking about with
all the flex labs. This is our exploratory programming ninth
and tenth graders, and each of the lab spaces can
be altered to fit whatever they're studying at the time,
(42:06):
So that's really exciting for us to think about what
they might be able to study across our center. All
those different pieces. We're back into that central location in
the middle where the cafeteria, the auditorium, all of.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
That in one space.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
We'll go across the top and on the left you'll
see that there's the business it and then there's digital media, arts, videography,
and graphic design, and then we move into the construction trades.
And by opening up the space and plumbing and heating, electrical,
and building trades all next to each other, we can
have more students, we can have more programming, we can
have an outside workspace that we don't currently have to
(42:44):
build a home. You also see there was advanced manufacturing
and welding there, and then straight ahead is where the
transportation segment would be with automotive and potentially diesel or autobody,
depends what we come out of our comprehensive local needs
assessment identifying as needs for this center. And then the
building is supposed to be a net zero so that's
(43:04):
why you see there's on the roof the solar panels
and there's gonna be geothermal, so it's it's meant to
be a net zero building. Our programs are not net zero,
welders are not net zero, but the building will be.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
This is really, uh, that's really impressive to see that
it's amazing. And again this is in upper Graniteville.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Yeah, yep, Baptist Street.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
And can you give us just a little idea of
exactly where that is.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
So if you drive past the old visitor center for
Rock of Ages, I don't believe that's open anymore, and
kind of go up around the corner, there is a
the road takes a sharp left to go through Graniteville,
the village, and if you go straight instead of taking
that sharp left, that's Baptist Street. And there are actually
on that twenty seven acre piece of property. There are
(44:01):
three access points to it, which is what makes it
a wonderful opportunity for us. We're using about half of
it for the building. We can use some of the
land for natural resources and for our other programs, but
there's also a potential to maybe find alternate uses.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
For that space.
Speaker 4 (44:18):
There's the Hartford Career Center bought land long ago that
they've basically been their building trades has built a house
every two years around a cul de sac, And so
is there an opportunity for us to do something like that?
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Just got a question if this goes down, will there
still be a program? It's baulding.
Speaker 4 (44:39):
We don't have any plan to close our current space,
so we would still keep this going. We just were
looking for more access for students, so we would be
looking at how can we expand to make sure that
the students who are interested can access CTE.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
How would that space be used the current space?
Speaker 4 (44:58):
Ah, if we leave, that's a good question. I think
Barry Unified Union School District is thinking about that. I
think they've got someone who's talking with them about the
use of all their buildings and how they might transition
or use spaces differently.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Would there be additional trades added to the current curriculum, yes,
can you do? You have that off the top of
your head.
Speaker 4 (45:29):
So there's some that are assumed in that design, and
it could change based on the comprehensive local needs assessment.
But if I'm trying, I'm going to walk through the
hallways to think about that. So animal science bringing back
early education, human services bringing back natural resources.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Animal science, that tech.
Speaker 4 (45:52):
Yeah, in the next the business it would be new.
Advanced manufacturing would be new, so we'd be able to
duplicate double our electrical, our plumbing and heating, our building trades,
our automotive, our medical, professions.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
And then that diesel or autobody would be new.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Wow, what what what do we do? What do you?
What are you going to do? If this vote doesn't
pass on November fourth, do we go back to the
drawing board? What happens at that point?
Speaker 3 (46:31):
I don't get to make this decision.
Speaker 4 (46:33):
So the board gets to make this decision, and they're
the ones that got to make the decision about moving
forward with this bond vote too. And so we have
moved our facilities meeting from November four to November sixth
so that we will have the results of the vote
to identify just that what are the next steps? I
(46:53):
can imagine that there's a range of possibilities. We could
further explore some of the things that other folk have
talked to us about. We could consider a second opportunity
in March.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
We could just say, let's wait.
Speaker 4 (47:08):
And see what happens. I don't know what, I don't
know what the board will decide to do.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Got a lot of a lot of time, a lot
of hours put into preparing for this and showcasing this
to the community to show them what not only what
this would look like, but what it would do long
term for our region. Hillary's asking who is instructing these
(47:37):
these courses. Teachers are hard enough to come by in
the state, which is a real valid question here. But
then you know, it would bring in more people, more instructors,
more teachers to help our economy, and maybe we could
(47:58):
get some workforce that'd be great, dialed in a little
better than it is right now.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
Obviously, we would have to go through the process, the
hiring process, to find out if there would be a
difficulty in that. I can tell you that I've had
outreach for almost every single one of those programs of
if you open that, I would love to come and
teach there, and I just say, great, it's wonderful that
you're interested. We would have a rigorous process for hiring
(48:26):
an instructor, as we do always.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
Yeah, is there anything else that we're missing here?
Speaker 4 (48:35):
If you have not seen the ad that the Digital
Media Arts students have done, that that one is just
near and dear to my heart because it's our current
students who created that video, with current students in some
of those programs, and also some old footage from previous students,
and it's just great to see that our students are already,
(48:57):
you know, doing that editing process and working with across
programs together.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
Carlos is doing such a great job with digital media
arts there. I mean, he's just so impressive, so impressive
what he's doing. I'm gonna you're gonna help me find
that so that I can post it up here and
show people what they're doing here. And again they'll be
(49:23):
there tonight.
Speaker 4 (49:24):
Yeah, five, five to seven tonight tours. There's also a
forum for Barry City at the Aldridge Library on Wednesday
night so that you can learn about the other bond
items there. It's not just a career center that's on
the ballot for Barry City, sure, so that that has
an opportunity. I think that's five to six thirty on
(49:47):
Wednesday at the Aldridge Library.
Speaker 3 (49:50):
Okay, I'm going to be on WDEV.
Speaker 4 (49:52):
Tomorrow, So thank you JD for having me today and
give me a little practice before I.
Speaker 3 (49:57):
Show up there.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
I'm glad you. I'm glad you reminded me that great
people over there and they're going to take obviously very
good care of you. And you know what, here's the thing.
You don't have to worry about having a bad hair day.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
That's true. I didn't even check the.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
Hair was great today, but I'm just saying that's radio.
Speaker 4 (50:19):
Yeah, and callers will be calling in and so if
you didn't get your question answered today and tune into
wdev at I think ten am tomorrow and call in
and maybe we can answer it there and I'll take
a look at all the comments.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Rob Roker it's going to be the host of that. Yeah,
very very smart guy. And I think there's a good
amount of understanding of what the what the concerns are
for this, but also which I think are quite obvious,
but also what the long term residual effects of this
(51:01):
new career center could be for decades and generations.
Speaker 4 (51:06):
Yeah, and it's not just for our high school students, right,
adult students as well. And how else can we support
the community with this center?
Speaker 2 (51:15):
Yeah, exactly, great point. Thank you so much for coming.
Speaker 3 (51:20):
In here, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
I'll be watching, I'll be listening and paying attention, as
I know so many others will. Thank you again, Jody
very much.
Speaker 3 (51:30):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
Have a great day, everybody. We'll be back tomorrow morning
right here where you are now aired now podcast. Be well,
God blessed,
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