Regional Career Academy to Work on Priorities

Members of the Effingham Regional Career Academy Board met recently to review goals toward getting the Academy in place.

The Career Academy is to be built in Effingham next to the Lake Land College Kluthe Center for Higher Education and Technology. The Academy will serve students from 15 area school districts. Some vocational education courses are being made available, but an infrastructure is needed to make sure a wider variety of coursework is available to more students.

Career Academy Board Chairman Norma Lansing said it seemed that all of the criteria of the Academy seem to be of equal importance. Lansing said there needs to be a prioritizing of the goals. 

Curriculum development, for example, is a key to make sure students are learning what is needed, as well as who is going to develop the curriculum.

Another goal is hours of instruction. If travel is involved, travel time needs to be budgeted into the equation, not only to allow time to get to and from the course site, but also so the students are at their district for their other classes.