What to know about Springfield Public Schools' new cosmetology CTE program

After more than two years of planning, Springfield Public Schools' new cosmetology program will begin its first term with students this fall.

On Aug. 10, SPS placed a new three-piece modular classroom for the new career technical education course at Gateways High School. Over the next few weeks, it will be set up with equipment such as a hair styling station, manicure and pedicure stations, a barber station, sinks, cabinets, and a full esthetics room.

The program's classroom, equipment and staffing is being paid for with $385,000 in federal funds from a Congressional Directed Spending package and additional money from the High School Success Act.

"A lot of people put a lot of hard work into putting this together, and the community is pretty excited about it," Shirley Arnett, teacher for the new cosmetology CTE program, said.

For the 2023-24 school year, there is a 15-student capacity. So far, 14 students have been admitted, according to Arnett. The program is open to incoming juniors in any of SPS's high schools. The students had to go through an application and interview process to be accepted, showing that they are committed to participating in what will be a rigorous two-year course.

The students will spend about half their school days at the CTE program over those two years.

What will the Springfield Public Schools cosmetology program look like?

Students will learn about cosmetology's four fields of practice: hair design, barbering, nail technology and esthetics.

The course integrates high school curriculum, specifically a science for cosmetology class and English language arts for business and professional writing.

Arnett said much of the early weeks of the course will be in the classroom, learning about safety, sanitation and other foundational skills before transitioning to the hands-on aspects.

Students will choose one of the four fields to focus on over the next two years. Arnett said hair design is the most popular.

During the second semester, Arnett plans to open a full-service salon at the school run by the students. These services will be open to the public, with more information to come.

By the end of their two years, students should have all the skills they need to pass their Oregon Cosmetology Board exam. Once they pass, they are licensed to work.

Arnett herself participated in a similar program in Roseburg.

She began studying cosmetology at age 16, earning her license right out of high school and traveling around the West Coast working in different areas in the cosmetology field. She recently connected with SPS and offered advice on how to start up the program when they offered her the teaching position.

"Education has always been just really top of mind for me because as a cosmetologist, you're always learning the newest, the latest techniques," Arnett said. "I was often teaching onboarding of new stylists, mentoring stylists in the industry. I got to thinking that it might be a time in my career to quit traveling so much and give back all the knowledge and the passion that I have for the industry, and just really pour it into the hearts of these students."

Where will the cosmetology program go next?

Mindy LeRoux, high school director for SPS, said she has heard for years from students who wanted to pursue cosmetology. Finding that students were discouraged by the cost of pursuing schooling after high school, she was inspired to look into options to bring a program to Springfield.

"Ultimately, what I want for kids is that they see the relevance in coming to school every day," LeRoux said. "They graduate from high school ready to sit for their exam, and then walk right into a profession that they're really excited about, without debt."

The average cost of cosmetology school is about $20,000.

"That was a barrier," LeRoux said. "For some families ... or students, the idea of taking out a loan is not the way they want to start their adulthood."

The program's current 15-student capacity is because cosmetology classes are required to have a 15-to-one student-to-teacher ratio.

LeRoux said they are planning to add a second cohort of 15 students to Arnett's class load next year, bringing the total students to 30. If they wanted to do any more than that, they'd need to hire another instructor.

There has been huge interest in the program so far, but many did not fit the criteria or were not incoming juniors.

"I had eighth graders' parents calling me, ninth graders and 12th graders and fifth-year seniors," LeRoux said. "There was somebody, an adult, paying to go to a school up in Portland thinking she could just come down and hop into our program."

Overall, the program has been getting traction in the community. Local businesses have offered demonstrations and inquired about collaborations, including job shadowing, apprenticeships and guest speaking.

"My goal is that they can leave graduate from high school, have their certification in the field or the practice that they desire and have a job at a fabulous salon in Eugene or Springfield," Arnett said. " We have partners all the way up in Portland as well. People are just so excited about our program."

What we can learn from Salem-Keizer's cosmetology program

Although SPS's new program will be the first of its kind in Lane County, there are similar programs around Oregon, including at Salem-Keizer Public Schools.

The Salem-Keizer program has been going strong at its Career Technical Education Center since 2016. It was run out of McKay High School on a smaller scale for years before that.

According to Rhonda Rhodes, principal of SKPS's Career Technical Education Center, the program has been hugely popular.

Currently, the program has three full-time teachers and one instructional assistant. It takes on 60-70 new students each year for its two-year program. However, Rhodes said they usually get 200-300 applications each year.

Over the past six years, only 5% of participating students have left or dropped out of the program, and Rhodes said this is mainly due to switching districts or a life crisis.

"Generally speaking, kids slam that spot and they want to keep it because they know they're literally saving like $20,000," Rhodes said.

Similarly to SPS's new program, the goal is to prepare the students for the state board exam to become fully licensed after graduation.

Rhodes said the district pays for all the students' exams, and they have a high success rate.

For the graduating class of 2023, all 55 students in the program graduated on time. Of the students in the cohort who have taken the exam so far, all of them have passed. And of that cohort, 87% have already taken the test. Rhodes explained that some students are not yet 18 and cannot yet take the test, while others may have decided not to pursue a cosmetology career.

"We're so proud of our kids," Rhodes said. "Our teachers were phenomenal, and we're just really proud of our program in general."

Rhodes said the program's 100% pass rate has come from hard work, by the students and teachers.

She said her teachers have worked to establish benchmarks, honing their strategies, testing and instruction methods since the program began.

Over time, the CTEC staff has paid special attention to teaching students how to grow and maintain a clientele, professional communication, collaboration, efficiency, productivity and generally how to be a professional.

Rhodes encouraged other districts to look into cosmetology programs but said there's a lot of planning that goes into it, taking ongoing costs of consumable supplies into account and determining what your goal is, whether that's licensure or not.

She said young people — ages 16, 17, 18 — are very capable when given the chance. Despite negative stereotypes, they will jump at an opportunity to learn when inspired.

"Students come in and they really transform and blossom into incredible professional, confident versions of themselves," Rhodes said. "They're able to excel."

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Springfield Public Schools offers CTE cosmetology program