By Conrad Dudderar
Associate Editor
Recognized at the November Yukon Legislative Breakfast was Canadian Valley Technology Center Superintendent Gayla Lutts, recently named among 50 Women Making A Difference in Oklahoma by the Journal Record.
Canadian Valley Technology Center serves more than 1,800 students across its district, which encompasses eight counties – Canadian being the largest. CV Tech has campuses in south Yukon and El Reno.
“We are proud of the relationship we have with our 14 sending schools,” Lutts said.
“As a school of choice, we’re constantly looking at how we can improve, what we can do differently and better to improve our programs so that we attract more students.”
The statewide Individual Career Academic Plan (ICAP) initiative – a requirement for public schools but not CV Tech – has changed how the center is recruiting students – in eighth, ninth and 10th grades.
“It allows those sending schools to check some of the financial literacy boxes and some of the career exploration boxes that are required by ICAP,” Lutts said.
“That’s one of the things we’re doing differently this year to help build that partnership and meet those needs.”
CV Tech also partners with Redlands Community College and Southwestern Oklahoma State University help students in its program earn higher education credits for associate’s and bachelor’s.
ICAP are new graduation requirements for school districts across Oklahoma, Superintendent Simeroth explained.
“It’s just designed to make students more aware of what they’re going to do when they graduate so we can have a better workforce and we can have better, productive citizens in our community and in our state,” he said.
“It involves everything – the career piece, the financial literacy piece, some language arts pieces,” Simeroth added. “We were one of the pilot districts several years ago.”
A career guidance specialist at Yukon High School works to ensure those students who want will receive internships “so we can let students know there is a career outside of college,” the YPS chief said.
“You don’t have to go to college to make a good living and support your family.”
