High school Career and Technical Education teachers have plans to actively involve more business and industry professionals in the classroom this year. To help them achieve this goal, they spent time during preplanning working with consultant Greg Wilson of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia to develop at least one activity that will actively engage business and industry partners.

To fine-tune their plans, teachers from each of the 14 career clusters/pathways currently offered in the school system gave three-minute presentations of their ideas to a panel of business and education professionals. The panel gave constructive feedback on the challenges and strengths of the teachers’ proposals, and what they might consider adding to make them more successful.

Panel members included Debbie Britt, Executive Director of Patient Services at Piedmont Fayette Hospital, Kim Schnoes, Financial Coach for Smart Path Financial and co-chair of the Fayette Vision’s Education Committee, and Dr. Joseph Barrow, Fayette County Public Schools Superintendent. Also attending the presentations were program specialists from the Georgia Department of Education, representing all 14 of the career clusters/pathways offered within the school system. The program specialists meet with the teachers following their presentations to help them further brainstorm ideas on how to engage business and industry professionals in the classroom while bringing more real world work experiences to students. The program specialists attending were Chad Pruitt (Architecture and Construction Cluster/Arts, AV Technology, and Communications Cluster/Transportation, Distribution and Logistics Cluster); Phyllis Johnson (Healthcare Science Cluster/Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security Cluster/Personal Care Services Cluster); Delda Hagin (Business, Management and Administration Cluster/Finance Cluster/Information Technology Cluster); Linda Smith (Marketing Cluster/Hospitality and Tourism Cluster); and Roger Ivey (Engineering Cluster/Technology Education Cluster).