FARMINGTON -- Space will open up this summer for Northwest Technical Institute to move classes to a central location for students in southern Washington County.
The institute's Secondary Career Center plans to move at least three programs for high school students to Farmington: dental assisting, criminal justice and a program preparing students to earn certifications as certified nursing assistants and personal care assistants, said Stephanie Trolinger, center director.
Programs
Northwest Technical Institute programs for high school students
• Programs through institute’s secondary career and technology center are for junior and senior high school students from 17 area high schools. Training is paid by local school districts and with funding from the Arkansas Department of Career Education.
• Programs for the 2016-17 school year that meet at the institute’s Springdale campus are automotive service technology, diesel truck technology and welding.
• Cosmetology offered at The Career Academy of Hair Design locations in Fayetteville, Rogers, Siloam Springs and Springdale
• Dental assisting courses meet at Northwest Arkansas Community College main campus in Bentonville and in the building housing the Agee Lierly Life Preparation Services Center in Fayetteville
• Medical professions programs offered at Northwest Arkansas Community College main campus in Bentonville, Rogers High School and Farmington High School campus.
• Welding also offered at Gravette High School.
Source: Staff report
The Arkansas Department of Career Education approved moving those three programs beginning with the 2017-18 school year, Trolinger said. She also is seeking department approval to offer a computer engineering program in Farmington.
A new campus is under construction for the Farmington School District's 10th through 12th grades that will be the home of its Career Academies beginning in August, said Superintendent Bryan Law. Law offered part of the existing Farmington High School campus as a satellite location for Northwest Technical Institute.
The existing high school also will house the district's Freshman Academy.
Northwest Technical Institute's main campus is located in Springdale, a location that is out of reach for students in rural Benton and Washington counties, Trolinger said. The institute is taking steps toward a goal of having classes on the main campus and in a regional center in Benton County and a regional center in southern Washington County.
"I'm so thankful they have the opportunity to be able to have some of these classes that are going to be fairly close to them," Trolinger said. "All of the superintendents, they all came together."
In addition to the main campus, the institute offers a dental assisting program for high school students at the Fayetteville School District's Agee Lierly Life Preparation Services Learning Center and a criminal justice program at the Jones Center in Springdale, Trolinger said. Those programs will move to Farmington.
Moving the high school dental program will not affect the dental assisting technical training program Northwest Arkansas Community College offers at the Fayetteville center for adults, said Steven Hinds, college spokesman.
Northwest Technical Institute also will move one class that prepares students to become certified nursing assistants and personal care assistants from Northwest Arkansas Community College's Bentonville campus to Farmington to keep students from having to drive to Bentonville for those certifications, Trolinger said.
The institute does not yet have a regional high school center in Benton County, but offers programs at the community college's Bentonville campus, Rogers High School and Gravette High School, according to a list of course locations for this school year.
Superintendents from across Northwest Arkansas, along with officials from the Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative in Farmington, spent the past year studying regional career centers, said Mary Ann Spears, Lincoln superintendent.
Superintendents in Washington County have discussed intermediate steps while planning continues for larger regional career centers for high school students in Benton and Washington counties, Spears said.
Lincoln High School leaders have emphasized career exploration by organizing career days that give students a chance to hear from more than a dozen speakers, Spears said. The high school is adding new career programs, including a computer science program starting in January, she said.
"I want every kid graduating with either a plan for college or a certificate in their hand to get on with life and do something productive," Spears said.
The Technical Institute satellite will be in addition to what is offered at Lincoln High School, Spears said.
A small number of Lincoln students drive to Springdale and Northwest Arkansas Community College to take courses through the Secondary Career Center, Spears said. The regional satellite in Farmington will be just 20 minutes away.
"We're on board with that," she said.
NW News on 11/26/2016