Salem Schools To Use $328K CTE Grant On Adult Education Programs

SALEM, MA — Salem Public Schools will use a $328,000 grant from the Commonwealth Corporation's Career Technical Initiative to purchase needed equipment as well as expand its courses to include adult training in automotive technology and building and property maintenance.

The grant is part of more than $3 million in year-end funding awarded to schools and organizations across the state.

The CTI grants aim to provide training opportunities for young people and adults to address skill gaps in high-demand sectors, such as healthcare, technology, and manufacturing.

Salem High School will begin the adult CTE classes at night beginning in July.

"So we're going to start using our shop spaces and CTE spaces for adults in the community to take advantage of these opportunities in the evenings," Superintendent Steve Zrike said. "Not during the school day. I don't want anybody to think we are going to open the doors to outside people during the school day. But in the evenings (we will).

"We are a community resource. We should be accessible to community members so that they can develop their skills in a particular trade."

Those interested in learning more about the program can contact Adult Learning Program Coordinator, Gabriel Yeager, at gyeager@salemk12.org.

Zrike added that Salem High School is also looking to work with local businesses to provide high school seniors with opportunities to earn "real-world work experiences that are complementary to their classroom education."

Zrike said those partnerships could include employment opportunities, as well as job shadowing and presentations to the Salem High CTE programs.

"We are committed to getting our students out in the real world," Zrike said. "It's great that they have access to our CTE programs in school. But, especially for our juniors and seniors, we are setting our students up so that they have real-world, practical experiences in the workforce.

"We want our young people to have options of higher education and career (training). It's not one or the other. They should have the option to do both. In some cases, students are working and going to school. We want them to have choices.

"It's incumbent upon us that they leave us with the ability to make a choice, and that they are not pigeonholed into one or the other, and that we've done our job to prepare them for that."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)