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JAMESTOWN, NY (WNY News Now) – Jamestown Public Schools are planning to reopen Rogers Elementary School as an innovation center.
Due to enrollment issues, Rogers Elementary School closed their doors to students in 2014.
The 2023-2024 school year will be the first phase in reopening the academic building for regular student use.
Beginning in September, Rogers School will temporarily host three classrooms for Fletcher Elementary School during the school year, while construction takes place.
The next school year, phase two will begin, including career and technical education programming for students of all ages.
This program will allow students to interact with local industry professionals, giving school aged children the opportunity to get an insight into possible careers.
“One of the things that we know about education is that you can’t walk into a group of seniors and say hey have you ever heard about Bioengineering, hey have you ever heard about being an electrician,“ explained Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker. “Have them say yes and just walk into a job three months later. What we have to do is we have to start younger. So when kids are in late elementary school, get exposure to careers, seeing people who are doing the work, maybe engaging with kids who are already experimenting with some of those work experiences. As they get into middle school, they start courses that are generalist enough around project Lead The Way, which are around careers and engineering and manufacturing. So that they can begin to think about what pathway they might want to follow.”
Currently at the Jamestown High School, a similar program is being held with local aviation companies, teaching high schoolers how to fix, coordinate, and fly aircrafts.
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