Three R's May Get a High-tech Boost - 2/15/2001
Company name: School District #81
Contact name: Dr. Gary Livingston
Contact phone: 509.354.7364
Company name: Holley Mason Building
Contact name: Robert C. Brewster, Jr.
Contact phone: 509.747-7905
Contact email: brewster@conoverbond.com
Spokane group hopes to create a technology high school.
Spokane educators and some technology companies are creating the area's first technology high school.
The venture -- called The Information Academy -- would train high school juniors and seniors in college-level technology courses.
The program could start this fall, said Spokane School District Superintendent Gary Livingston.
Livingston described the project Thursday evening at a meeting sponsored by Cisco Systems, It's Our World and Holley Mason/ConoverBond.
The meeting -- Launch Pad Version 1 -- was held at the Holley Mason Building, 157 S. Howard, where the tech academy would be housed in several classrooms. The open house was designed to call attention to the increasing presence of tech companies in the Spokane and North Idaho area.
The pilot school would operate for two years before being assessed, Livingston said in an interview earlier Thursday.
Key resources would come from Spokane School District, which would obtain advanced computers and technology materials, and the Community Colleges of Spokane, which would find instructors in the key courses.
"We're still in the planning stages, but we should know in two to three weeks if we get a key grant" to move the project forward, Livingston said.
Area businesses would take part by offering mentorships, internships and summer jobs for the program's students.
The district is seeking about $200,000 to buy new equipment and prepare three to five initial classrooms in the Holley Mason Building. Those rooms would be in areas to be vacated when Lewis and Clark High School students return to their remodeled campus this fall.
The academy concept sprang from talks over the past few years between educators and business leaders about the need for better-trained tech workers.
In the academy, the first group of between 50 and 100 students would take classes in Web development and computer networking. A later phase would add courses that focus on biomedical training, Livingston said.
The academy can be viewed as a "pipeline" into other area tech training programs such as INTEC -- the Inland Northwest Technology Education Center, Livingston said.
INTEC was formed last year as a nonprofit tech-training effort specifically to develop or retrain skilled workers needed by regional companies.
When it starts its first classes later this year, INTEC's focus would be on training workers older than high school age.
"There's a lot of talk about having a seamless K-through-20 education program," Livingston said. "The Information Academy would be part of the high school pipeline into advanced training," he said.
Program planners also need to define which students would benefit from the program. It will be limited to juniors and seniors.
While initially limited to Spokane School District students, it could later broaden to involve other districts, said Livingston.
A major reason for using the Holley-Mason is the plan by building owner Rob Brewster to fill it with technology companies, especially those in software-related areas.
The proximity of those companies will generate additional benefits for internships and scholarships, said Livingston.
Although several high-tech schools have started around the country, Livingston said, the Spokane project isn't modeled after any other. "It was self-designed around the needs assessment this community has done to look at this area."
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