In demand: Employers, career-focused students find solutions at vocational school

At the Central Nine Career Center, southside and Johnson County high school students are trained by certified, specialized teachers in ever-growing job fields.

In the past five years, the vocational center in Greenwood has increased programming to meet local demand for welders, HVAC and early childhood education teachers, in turn growing its student body by 10 percent from the eight high schools that feed it. Some of the most popular programs include health services, truck driving, police work, investigations and security occupations.

The Career Center, with more than 1,200 students, has no room for additional programs, Director Nicole Otte said. Despite a slight attendance drop this year, demand for Central Nine classes is expected to increase with new graduation requirements that push students to focus on career readiness in addition to academic proficiency.

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“We’re at our capacity,” Otte said. “What we’re looking at are the changes at the state level with the graduation requirements and the potential for more enrollment.”

While programs such as welding, criminal justice and veterinary careers are currently full, others, such as exercise science and the aviation program, still have space. All classrooms, however, are currently occupied. While the career center is not currently seeking a new location, Otte said a future building project or renovation is not out of the question, especially if demand for programs increases.

“If we got to that point, do we have programs that need to expand and are we anticipating future growth in terms of graduation requirements?” Otte said. “We’d have to prove we have a need for this. We have to have each individual school corporation be on board.”

The Career Center, which opened in 1972, has remained in its original location and underwent renovations in 2008 and 2010.

Individual schools often have difficulty finding certified teachers and funding equipment needed to teach specialized trade classes, so they often turn to Central Nine to provide advanced classes in industries with high demand for workers.

One in seven students at Greenwood Community High School attend classes at the center, which is one of the highest rates of the eight participating districts. Greenwood offers a basic welding class, but cannot offer advanced classes because of a lack of equipment, instead electing to send students to the career center.

Principal Todd Garrison said sending students to the career center is much easier than finding certified teachers to come to the high school. At the career center, one certified teacher can teach students from eight high schools, as opposed to each school having to hire its own teacher.

“We offer construction here, for example, but it’s extremely difficult to find teachers to teach construction trades so we rely on (Central Nine) for programming,” Garrison said.

Whiteland High School students account for 17 percent of the Central Nine student body, the highest share of any Johnson County high school. Whiteland will typically have feeder classes, such as anatomy and physiology, which will prepare students to take more advanced healthcare classes at Central Nine, Principal Tom Zobel said.

Classes such as horticulture, fire safety rescue and culinary arts require specialized teacher licenses that make teaching the class outside of Central Nine difficult, he said.

“We’ll just have to take a look at student needs,” Zobel said. “When they go to select courses, as far as career plans we have to look at what students selected and make it work. Otherwise, we have to find additional staff (at Whiteland) to make it work.

“It’s a challenge we wrestle with year after year.”

Zobel said students rank multiple Central Nine classes they would be interested in taking, so if their first selection is full, they can get their second or third.

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Central Nine’s enrollment this year is 1,201. The students come from eight high schools in Johnson County and southside Indianapolis.

Percentage of Central Nine students from each high school

Franklin Central (Marion County): 19 percent

Whiteland: 17 percent

Perry Meridian: 12 percent

Center Grove: 12 percent

Greenwood: 11 percent

Franklin Community: 9 percent

Indian Creek: 8 percent

Beech Grove: 6 percent

Southport: 6 percent

Percentage of students at each school that go to Central Nine

Indian Creek: 20 percent

Whiteland: 14 percent

Greenwood: 14 percent

Franklin Central: 11 percent

Franklin Community: 10 percent

Beech Grove: 10 percent

Center Grove: 8 percent

Perry Meridian: 8 percent

Southport: 5 percent

Programs at Central Nine by percentage of students

Health services: 24 percent

Transportation: 16 percent

Protective services: 16 percent

Information technology: 15 percent

Human services: 13 percent

Construction and landscape: 9 percent

Manufacturing: 7 percent

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