The Wilmington City School District is looking to add a career readiness coach to the staff in the upcoming days. The new position, touched on at Tuesday’s recent school board meeting, was posed as a way to expand opportunities for students looking toward post-high school careers.
Though details were scarce during the school board meeting, the new position is scheduled to be posted, according to WCS Superintendent Tim Dettwiller, in the near future.
The district plans to pay for the new position with funds provided by the Expanding Opportunities for Each Child Non-Competitive (EOEC NC) Grant, a non-competitive formula grant given to school districts within the state to “implement programs and activities that align to the Department’s agency priorities of including Literacy, Learning Acceleration, and Workforce Readiness,” according to an Ohio.gov notice on the grant.
The district intends to use the position to expand opportunities for students within the district, with the intention of using the grant money to fund the position for a year. If the grant was to run out or be otherwise canceled, or the position deemed to not have the desired effect, it would also be canceled at that time.
“The position we’re looking to hire is through a one-year federally-funded grant,” said Dettwiller. “If money goes away, the position goes away. Or if the position is not effective at the end of this year, we change to something else.”
The job shows a growing trend in school systems nationwide looking to provide greater support for students in an ever-changing and competitive workforce.
According to a report in PR Newswire, a Chicago-based distributor of press releases, 300,00 kids in the state of North Carolina in grades K-12 used career coaches in the 22-23 school year, a figure that is up 51% from the prior year.
“I have been meeting with lots of different people in the background trying to get this position set up, and provide lots of resources and support for whoever takes this job,” said Dettwiller of the position.
