'An exciting time': Erie High works to re-energize career and technical education

Jason Burgert never knows when he will run into his former students.

They might work for a landscaper doing a job at his house.

They might apprentice for an electrician he has called in a pinch.

They might examine the chassis of his car when it is up in his mechanic's shop.

Burgert enjoys meeting his former students in those types of situations. And he would like to meet even more of them out in the big world of work.

He is the new director of career and technical education at Erie High School, a building that has boasted vo-tech programs since it opened as Technical Memorial High School in the 1950s.

Burgert, 49, is also a 26-year veteran of the Erie School District, where he has worked as a teacher and administrator.

His previous posts include assistant principal at what was then Central Career & Technical School — another former name for Erie High — from 2012 to 2019. He was principal at Pfeiffer-Burleigh Elementary School from January 2020 until he moved to Erie High this past June.

Burgert has seen many of his former students succeed by getting jobs after graduating from Erie High's career and technical education programs, known as CTE.

"It is a great source of pride, the opportunities that we offer students," Burgert said.

One goal: Pandemic rebound at Erie High's CTE

As the new head of CTE at Erie High, Burgert has pushed to bring more attention to programs that went largely dormant due to remote-only learning during the pandemic. Learning how to weld, for instance, became more difficult for students unable to fire up a welding torch in a classroom.

He is also building on the efforts of two of his mentors: Pam Mackowski, his predecessor as director of CTE and another champion of the district's vo-tech programs, and Matthew Pundt, who was a principal and head of the CTE programs at Central Tech.

Previous role:Erie principal returns to 'special' Pfeiffer-Burleigh

Pundt coined a phrase that Burgert uses often: "All roads lead to a career."

Burgert wants the roads to become more traveled.

With the pandemic-related restrictions over, he said he is dedicated to working with businesses to reestablish old partnerships and form new partnerships for internships and co-op opportunities for students.

"Through COVID it was a tough time for all of us," Burgert said. "And I know opportunities for the students to engage with the community were limited.

"This is an exciting time to be a career and technical director, as students are now able to get back into the community. We are exploring more co-op opportunities for our students that were not available due to the restrictions in our world."

Mackowski said she is thrilled about Burgert's efforts to enhance CTE at Erie High.

She is retiring at the end of this academic year after working with CTE at Central Tech and Erie High since 2008, including serving as director of CTE at Erie High since 2017, the year the school became Erie High when the school district merged three high schools.

"Jason really sees the big picture, and he really sees where it needs to go," Mackowski said. "I just see it getting bigger and better."

Burgert praised Mackowski, saying she "worked very hard to set CTE programming up for success. Her willingness to assist me in transitioning into my new role is invaluable."

Accessible career and technical education

Rebounding from the pandemic is only one goal. Burgert also wants to make the CTE programs more accessible and attractive to students throughout the 10,000-student Erie School District.

He is expanding an "intercampus" initiative to enroll CTE students who do not attend Erie High — high school students who attend Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy or alternative education classes at the district's Patrick J. DiPaolo Student Success Center at Emerson-Gridley.

As of mid-January, 710 high school students were enrolled in the full CTE progam at Erie High, in which students get a CTE certificate when they graduate, according to district records.

Students on the full CTE track take three of every eight classes in vo-tech, with the other classes covering core academic requirements and some electives. CTE students graduate with an academic diploma and can graduate with a number of industry-recognized credentials and a CTE-related certificate.

Of the 710 CTE students, four are from Collegiate Academy, 31 are from the DiPaolo center or enrolled in the district's cyber program and the rest of the students are from Erie High, Burgert said. He said another 23 Collegiate students will come to Erie High this semester to take the second half of their engineering course.

Erie High's total in-person enrollment — which excludes Erie High students in alternative education and the district's cyber program — was 1,501 students as of mid-January. Collegiate's enrollment was 720 and the DiPaolo center's 1,081, though the center also enrolls students in middle school.

The Erie School District is also providing added supports to make CTE classes more accessible to students learning the English language and students in special education, Burgert said. About 19% of all CTE students are learning English as a second language.

Burgert wants to generate student interest in the CTE program as early as possible in the student's academic careers. He has invited every teacher, counselor and administrator at the district's three middle schools to tour the CTE labs.

And he has hosted small groups of middle school students who have shown an interest in vo-tech programs as gauged by their teachers or via career-development software. When they arrive at Erie High, 3325 Cherry St., the students see firsthand the school district's massive renovation of the 500,000-square-foot building, including CTE labs.

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As of mid-January, two weeks before the Jan. 31 application deadline for CTE programs, applications were up 65% from 2022, Burgert said.

"Some students haven't identified their specific path yet," Burgert said of prospective CTE students. "Sometimes I think it is a lot to ask a 14- or 13-year-old person, what do you want to do when you graduate from high school?

"Our hope is that if a student has an interest in one of these areas, that this is an opportunity for them to gain training and certificates and give them multiple options upon graduation."

At Erie High, sign declares 'carpenters needed'

Erie School Board President Daria Devlin said she likes the direction of the CTE program at Erie High, one of three CTE programs for public school students in Erie County. The Corry Area School District also runs its own CTE program. The Erie County Technical School, in Summit Township, offers CTE programs for students in the county's 11 other school districts.

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Devlin was an advocate for vo-tech education when she was coordinator of grants and community relations for the Erie School District from 2013 to 2018, and she has continued to support enhancing the CTE program since she was elected to the School Board in 2021.

"Those programs have always been a jewel in the district," Devlin said.

Devlin is the executive director for the nonprofit Erie Center for Arts and Technology, at the former Wayne School at East Sixth Street and East Avenue. ECAT runs career and job-training programs, and the building is also home to the UPMC Jameson School of Nursing at UPMC Hamot.

In 2020, ECAT and the Erie County Community College signed an agreement to facilitate and manage what had been the Erie School District's Tech After Hours after-school program, which teaches adult and nontraditional students construction, machining and welding.

That equipment and labs for that program remain at Erie High, but ECAT handles construction trades and the community college handles machining courses.

Devlin said she is pleased with Burgert's efforts to increase access to CTE.

"I am really hoping it will pay off and we will have increased enrollment and success," Devlin said. "The future of our city depends on the success of these students."

The sign in Mike Trippi's CTE lab advertises the benefits of a CTE education in carpentry. "Carpenters needed," it states. "$32/HR. Family benefits."

The sign is an example of how much carpenters can make once they graduate from Erie High and finish a four-year apprenticeship program, said Trippi, who teaches construction trades at Erie High.

"It was very intentional," Trippi said of hanging the sign in his lab.

Each CTE course area at Erie High offers at least one industry-recognized certification for students, according to the district. Students who score well on the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute's end-of-course exam receive certification from the state of Pennsylvania.

"If you go to a trade school, you are learning what you learn here," Trippi said.

Students can use the certifications to get jobs once they graduate or to help them pursue post-secondary courses in their chosen fields. Some Erie High CTE students participate in co-ops with local businesses, in which they work after school, and some CTE students receive job offers before they graduate, Burgert said.

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The CTE courses provide "a tremendous opportunity for students to go directly into the workforce or post-secondary schools," he said.

Erie High CTE student prepares for a nursing career

Weam Kathem is taking full advantage of Erie High's CTE offerings. The 18-year-old Erie High senior and native of Iraq has excelled in the school's program for nursing assistants.

After graduation, she will attend the UPMC Jameson School of Nursing at UPMC Hamot — the program at ECAT, in the former Wayne School — to get a degree in nursing and eventually work at a hospital and specialize in oncology and trauma care.

"I want to be the first person to try to save a person's life," Kathem said.

She said the CTE program at Erie High has given her a solid background in nursing. She credited the attentiveness of her instructors, including Sonja Groenendaal, a nursing assistant instructor.

Asked what courses she likes the best, Kathem smiled.

"I love them all," she said.

At the UPMC Jameson School of Nursing at UPMC Hamot, students get clinical instruction at UPMC Hamot, take non-nursing classes at Gannon University and complete the balance of their classroom work at the ECAT building. They are on track to graduate in 16 months, more quickly than a four-year program.

At the ECAT building:Nursing program to launch at Erie’s former Wayne School

While at Erie High, Kathem is also taking classes at Gannon as part of the Erie School District's dual enrollment program. She will be the first person in her family to go to college.

At Erie High, a 'preferred option' is career and technical ed

Jason Burgert beams when he talks about Kathem and other CTE students who have succeeded — students he might eventually encounter in the workplace. He wants more students to view the CTE path as "a preferred option," and to start building their careers in Erie High's CTE labs.

"It is our role to help students prepare for a career," Burgert said. "If that career is employment as soon as they graduate from high school, great. If that career involves another post-secondary path, we have labs that address both."

He emphasized his point by repeating the phrase that he has adopted as his mantra.

"All roads lead to a career," Burgert said.

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.

Wide variety of offerings

Erie High offers courses in 18 areas in its career and technical education program. They fall under five state-recognized clusters: art and communication, business and finance, engineering and industrial technology, health and science and human services.

The course areas:

• Auto body technology

• Auto mechanics technology

• Child care and support services management

• Computer programming

• Construction trades

• Cosmetology

• Criminal justice

• Culinary arts

• Digital media

• Horticulture/landscaping

• Machine technology

• Marketing

• Medical assistant

• Nursing assistant

• Sports medicine/rehab aide

• Pre-engineering

• Protective services

• Welding

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie High works to re-energize career, technical education