THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 30, 1994 TAG: 9411300424
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
City and school officials are holding what they hope will be a trump card in the competition among area cities to attract high-tech companies.
It's an 18-page plan for a new technical school in the northern part of the city, most likely to be built near Bayside High.
The gem of the technical center, as envisioned now, would be a Ford Academy of Manufacturing Sciences. Beach high school students also would be offered courses in computers, interactive multi-media communications and entrepreneurship. All of the center's students would be required to take classes in total quality management, a set of techniques for improving companies' operations to increase customer satisfaction.
Graduates could be certified in their fields, which would help them land good jobs after high school or bolster applications for colleges or career-training schools.
The center also would include services for adults, such as Tidewater Community College courses and job-training programs.
Two City Council members, two high school principals, one teacher and the school system's director of technical and career education will visit Ford Motor Co.'s headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., on Thursday. They'll see Ford academies at high schools there.
The academies are sponsored by Ford in concert with other companies, and teach everything from the technical skills needed for line workers in manufacturing plants to pre-college engineering and design.
Virginia Beach would be the only school system in the state to have a Ford Academy, said Patrick M. Konopnicki, director of technical and career education.
Konopnicki said he also envisions the Ford program being provided at or near Kellam High School to serve students in the southern portion of the city who do not wish to travel to Bayside High and the new center.
The plan for the center, drafted by Konopnicki and a team of city and school officials and local business representatives, has yet to be reviewed by the School Board and the full City Council.
The cost to build and equip the center has not been estimated yet, although some money already has been allocated to buy land. Most likely, construction would not begin until at least the summer of 1996, with the center opening in the fall of 1997 or 1998.
But some City Council members already favor the new center as a means of luring businesses to the area with the promise of a steady stream of highly trained workers.
School officials are hoping that, along with the successful Vocational-Technical Educational Center already situated in the southern part of the city, the new facility will give Beach students comprehensive technical training and work experience to prepare them for the next century, whether they choose to go to college or not.
``I would think that it would be one (opportunity) the kids would jump on,'' said Bayside High School Principal Michael J. Debranski. ``Especially a lot of the kids that we serve here. I think it would be right up their alley.''
``It's something that's in the planning stages, but it's got a lot of momentum already,'' Konopnicki said. by CNB