Work Study and Career Readiness Programs at River Bend CUSD #2

college and career readiness. We explore River Bend, CUSD #2's unique approach to preparing students for the future. In this episode of the ISA podcast, Welcome to the ISA podcast. My name is Jason Neville. My guest is Dr. Darrell Hogue. He's the superintendent in River Bend, CUSD #2. From paid construction internships to teaching students, the skills employees desire, River Bend has built an impressive career readiness program. Dr. Hogue discusses his philosophy, opportunities available to students, and shares advice on preparing the next generation. Dr. Hogue, welcome to the ISA podcast. If we could just start with you just telling us a little bit about yourself and your school district. Sure. Darrell Hogue, Superintendent River Bend Schools. I come to River Bend via Montana, I grew up in Montana, enlisted in the Navy, which kind of part of the story a little later, lived and worked in the Libertyville area, went to school in that area, was a teacher for 10 years in Libertyville, came out to Northwest Illinois in '05, and worked as a principal at Morrison, Junior High for 10 years, and I've been 12 years at River Bend. River Bend is probably one of the most western districts in Illinois before you get to Iowa. We share a bridge, and the Mississippi River is about 100 yards from my office. It is about 950 students, our high school is about 280 to 300, and we have always been a school district that supports the community, cares a great deal about the community, and tries to provide opportunities for its student through our community engagement efforts. I want to get into your journey into education, because I think it sort of helps shape some of the big things that we're going to talk about on today's podcast. So you served as a Navy hospital corpsman before becoming an educator. How did that experience shaped your philosophy around career readiness and applied learning? Yeah, I appreciate that. My service in the Navy as a hospital corpsman was, I guess I didn't realize how I was learning and what and how the military learning application process was until I was into my teaching career. I was at a professional development experience at Great America. They used to host Great America, used to host professional development, and this gentleman from the Air Force was talking about standards and how standards in the military sort of function and work, and it dawned on me. It's like a light bulb went off. I'm like, you know, when I experienced this every day, when I was in school as a hospital corpsman, you get some base foundational knowledge, vocabulary, writing ways. They want you to write ways, they want you to sort of document things. You learn some experiences, and then you apply those experiences in the field almost as quickly as you learn them. So you learn didactic in one day and practical in the other day. So that was kind of the military way didactic and then practical learn, then apply, learn and apply. And you repeat that process. And if you're struggling with the learning part, you have to kind of go back in, assure that you have the academic piece down before you get to the practical piece. And if you struggle with the practical piece, they continue to give you more opportunities to practice. So I thought about that in education and I thought, wow, what a great, you know, again, standards are that. You have a set of standards. You learn these standards. And then we apply them. We measure them. We give kids an opportunity to practice with them. But in the, as I became, again, I was a middle school teacher when I was a teacher as a middle school principal and I was a principal. But when I got to be a superintendent, I got to experience the high school life as well and saw so much value in giving kids experiences, especially juniors and seniors as they had the opportunity to apply a set of skills to a potential career or career learning opportunity. And I saw those two things just really wedded quite well. And so worked in our district to create more opportunities for students to you know, experience work study as it related to, you know, the skills that they had acquired while in the River Bend schools or at Fulton High School. You said, you recently did a video kind of podcast with the ROE and in that you said career exploration needs to take place in high school, not in college because it's a lot less expensive. Can you just talk a little bit about shifting the mindset in your district for preparing students to graduate, to preparing them for life beyond high school and just some of the different things that you guys have been able to do. Sure. I'm happy to do that. Jason, when I became superintendent, one of the courses I took was a facility class. And at that facility class, one of our professors from Western happened to be a superintendent in Makoaheda, Iowa's name was Kim Huckstead. And he had turned one of his buildings into a manufacturing industrial learning opportunity for his community and his kids. His community had quite a bit of manufacturing and they connected kids to these opportunities in their community. And that's where that sort of that mindset began long before I was a superintendent is communities, especially smaller communities like we are in, serve our community schools, serve the community. So I've always tried to think about how can what we do in schools help our employers, our businesses, and our community. And so when I arrived in Fulton, they had a program called community involvement. And the idea was that students would go out and serve the community. And it kind of morphed over time. And when I got here, we worked really hard to create both summer and in school sessions for students. We are a block schedule. So we have 80 minute periods every other day. So our seniors get the opportunity to go to a place of employment every day or every other day based on their schedule. And the availability they have to experience on the job training, on the job observations, and sometimes full on work situations. It's not out of the ordinary for a student to get some sort of compensation for the hour to 80 minutes they spend with an employer. The employers just feel that committed that they want to offer pay to the students. It's not a requirement or anything like that. It's just kind of a value add for some students. Anyway, so I got to see right away how it's valuable these experiences were for these students. Fast forward a couple years. When I started my dissertation, I did a qualitative and quantitative study on our program, our work study program. And really three key things came out of that. Students loved the experience so much so that their GPA was a full GPA higher as compared to students who were not in the program. About 70% of our students enroll in the program. It's not required yet. We haven't figured out a way to make it a requirement. I wish it was not sure forcing a student to do this would be the best. So we're still working on that. So students had a GPA higher grade point average higher than their peers that were not in the program. They also had way better attendance. They missed only seven days on average where students not in the program is 11 days and the students who are in the work study program were twice as likely to attend a two or four year experience and to get an additional credential. All that to say, I've often said high school is a place to career explore, not college, cost a lot less. And that's certainly the case, right? Like if you can figure out what you want to do or at least get yourself pointed in a direction you want to go because like most of us look at myself. I started in the military as a medical person. I did some of that after I got out of the military but knew I wanted to teach. And so that was a job that allowed me to become a teacher. My path changed. But I had a path. And we want to give kids a path, a career, a way to make a living. Yes, that might change. But if you can explore in high school where it's free and not in college where you're paying for classes, playing for experiences, you see the savings. When I did my dissertation, when I did this work, plenty of kids learned what they didn't like doing as well. I'll never forget the scale was so gung-ho on being a dental hygienist. After she spent a little bit of time in the dental in the dentist office that allows our students to come there, she realized right away that that just was not for her when she chose a different path. We had a physical, a student who was at the physical therapy clinic in the area and she just loved her experience. She's a practicing physical therapist now. She gained a great deal of insight into the field and got some hands-on experiences during her work study experience. And so that's really what I mean. If we can give kids opportunities to view what the work life is like, talk to the employers. And what I like about our program, it's not just a day or two, that's going to work, that's going to give a kid some information, but we commit to a full semester or a full year. Some kids change their work study experience mid semester and experience two career paths or career opportunities. We're open to that as well. So that's why I say it's much less expensive to begin that career exploration in high school than in college. You mentioned a couple of different careers in nursing. Can you kind of just give our listeners sort of the full menu of different work study programs that are offered in your district? Any career that's out there, quite honestly. We've had kids help not help be a part of deliveries at the hospital. So we get a lot of medical, a lot of kids are interested in medicine, nursing, those sorts of things. And we get great support from the White Study Area Career Center here that's in Sterling. They have some great experiences. A lot of kids want to do some hands-on manufacturing. We have partners that will take our students in, give them some great welding, construction experiences. We work with an electrical company that gives kids that want to become electricians. They get some great experiences. I had one young man who wanted to do an arbor. He was interested in being an arborist. And we connect him with this company that cut down trees and help shape trees and all that. And he liked it so much. He wanted to start his own business in it. But I mean, he was working every day with those folks during his hour a day. They gave him the chainsaw. I made sure he was safe and he got to do those things. We have people that go into business. We have people that go into graphic arts. We have HR people that get a chance to work with the HR folks. We have one of my favorite programs is our teaching programs. We have, because we have the placements. I mean, that's just such low-hanging fruit, our education pathways. We were one of the first school districts in the state to create an education pathway. But we've always had students at various levels of our schools, our pre-K elementary middle school and high school. We've had some kids have some great experience in the ag field. We've been, we have an ag pathway. We've also partnered with some area. The career center also, Clinton Community College as well as Morrison Institute of Technology or Morrison Technology. They provide some both dual credit as well as some on-site opportunities for students. What I'm trying to think what we've had some folks work with the police. We get a lot of kids want to become police officers and that works out well. In fact, one of my one of my interviews for the dissertation was a police officer and he had been one of the first classes to start the work study program and he did it in policing and went on to become a police officer. So he was always willing to take on students. We've had DNR officers. We've had, gosh, what's some of the unique ones. I think I feel like I've hit most career pathways but we have again any, we would offer students any employer that exists in our network of employers that we can place kids with. We were open to doing that for them. I want to go back to something that you said earlier about noticing an increase in GPA and as well as student attendance. I think it kind of makes sense that when you have a pathway program such as what you guys have that students are going to learn skills for a job. But the other benefits of students loving school more, those sort of extra benefits that come with creating an environment where students are excited to come to school each day. Can you just talk like a little bit more about that? Was that an expectation where you guys surprised that the student's academic scores were increasing, attendance increased? I was surprised that it was statistically significant to the point it was again when I did the dissertation piece. It reached a level of statistical significance. So to that degree, yes. When you really break it down and you think about it, we love learning that we can apply, right? Like I love going to a professional development and the next day I'm able to apply some of that learning. Our kiddos and our students have these skills. I can think of one young man. He wanted to be an engineer. We took some of our construction classes, took some of our pre-well-being classes. His senior year, he spent the first semester learning the CAD system out of company and the second semester, he designed his own, what was a deer blind is what he designed it. So he got to design it, put it all together on the CAD programming and he got to build it out the second semester throughout his work study experience. And so everything he was learning, he was applying. Who doesn't love to take knowledge and apply it to what you're doing. The other part that I found very intriguing and illuminating honestly was the value that I wrote about this in the dissertation, the value that the employers felt students brought to their workplace. Like the employers talked about when the kids are there, the workplace is more fun. And so you get to contribute to this success of a young person. We had two students that got to, I don't know if this comes up a little later, but we had two students who we created and crafted a work study experience through our addition at the Elementary School. So we had four classrooms that were being added to the Elementary School. We worked with a company called Verigee, myself and the Verigee team created an application, an interview process, and we hired two students who got paid over the summer from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. to work with the construction management team on site overseeing our project. So these students got day-to-day experiences all summer long with every trade in the field and they got to oversee how starting from the ground up to completion, final walkthrough, a construction project. So they experienced some amazing learning through application. But what was most unique about that was the two folks who were their primary teachers from Verigee, the site manager, and the lead regional manager, both contributed to their their their learning. And those guys both really enjoyed the experience. They thought it was going to be kind of a more challenged than that would be, but the kids really the students added so much to their summer, the construction project that just made that much more enjoyable. So that's a win-win right when when the employer and the student both win in the situation. That's always that was probably one of the bigger bigger surprises. And so if you can contribute to someone's well-being, I think you're just going to be that much more invested in doing a good job and showing up every day. So we've talked a lot about what's been happening in River Bend and all the opportunities that you're creating for students. I just want to get a little bit more into logistics because a lot of our listeners are superintendents and they kind of want to know, hey, how can I get this type of program going in my district or how can I expand on what we already have. So you guys have a position that's perhaps a little bit unusual from what you think of in a traditional school setting, a full-time work study coordinator. Can you talk about what that person does, what that position looks like and just give our our superintendents who might be listening and a better idea of that position and why it's important. Yeah, appreciate that. So this this when I started we had a one block a day. So 80 minutes a day, a person who kind of oversaw all the placements and the student work. And we saw we thought it could be improved upon. It was a great program. Mr. Luker was the teacher and he did a fabulous job. He started it. He ran it for years when he retired. He liked it so much. He cared about it so much. He came back and did it as a part-time instructor. When he was going to retire a second time, he felt like we could increase the value of that experience. And so we brought on a teacher named Jen Pepper and she works with the employer. She works with the students. She networks with the employer. She's able to get to some of the sites to interact and learn more about what the employer's needs are and wants in this partnership because this is a partnership. It's taken time over the years to find willing partners and these are young people. So everything doesn't always go perfect. And so we have to run interference. And at times we've had to remove students from situations because they weren't keeping up there into the bargain. Maybe didn't show up. What prepared for what they needed to be prepared for. And the employer really needed them to be. And so this person can work with the students. The other thing this person does is she works with our pathway program. So when students get into the high school as freshmen, they begin to sort of look at what they want to do for those four years in high school. And she can help guide them to some experiences that match their strengths and weaknesses. And so early on, she gets to start to help these young people sort of understand their strengths and weaknesses. As they gain more knowledge about themself, they're able to then kind of, this is maybe what I want to do. This is maybe what I want to do. She can kind of help design that. And then she has the opportunity to kind of work with those students closely into what they want to do in the end. But also in the meantime, she's helping them build portfolios, resumes and credentials that assist them in their future, whether it's off to college, whether it's right into a trade, whether it's into the military or right into the employment field. That's the value of that program. And so we, again, wanted that investment. We wanted that experience to be better for students. And so if you want a better experience, you got to kind of commit financially to the value of putting a teacher in that position so that they can design and guide it. And it just provides so much more oversight and so much more direction to have that person leading it and guiding it. And it gives the kids a much richer experience. There's a big focus here at IASA about future-focused schools and preparing students for the future. And some of those main skills that students are going to need, communication, collaboration, problem solving. Those are the skills that employers want. How are you guys sort of ensuring that those employee-ployability skills are taught and sort of assessed throughout your school system? That's a great question. Communication and creating these opportunities for students involve a lot of partnerships with employers. And you've heard me talk a little bit about that. Without these employer placements for students, we wouldn't be able to have students go where they want to go. And so a lot of that work goes on behind the scenes in advance through partnerships and meeting. We have a group called More Making Opportunities Real for everyone. It's part of the Illinois Success Network. Illinois Success Networks having their annual meeting coming up. I've seen it in several of the IASA emails February 26. I think it's the day. And our local region is doing something with actually it's a partnership with some Iowa schools. We do an employer education symposium where we invite employers and students. Students tell their stories and we then collaborate at the table with the students and the employers. So the employers, the students and those are hoping to learn more about those interactions. Get us sit down and so understanding what employers want is about planning specific things so that we can hear from employers. Hearing from employers helps us understand what their needs are. We know they want, the number one thing they want are kids who can communicate, who can work well with others and can problem solve. And so they tell us that all the time. Those are the people they need and so day gets work just really fits into that because we're creating these opportunities. So if we know employers want students who communicate, who work well together and can problem solve, our job as educators is to create those opportunities where those skills get put to practice. One of the things we've done here is we had a classroom that was above our gym. And it had a small window at one point in time and we were looking through the window and occasionally people would go up there and watch a game through this little window. And we said, what if we took this window out and put a full ceiling to floor window and we kind of learned about how much it would cost. It was surprisingly very affordable. And so we created something called the steamer suite. It's a, it is a private, private, it's a suite that overlooks our high school gym and might be one of the only ones in the state. It can be rented out. We've turned it over to our culinary and our FFA, our construction, our CTE, our video production and our business teams to run it. So this is a space and any school can do this. Find a space, find a business that schools kids can operate and run and turn them loose and give them as many opportunities to do it. Many people use video boards these days. We were, we've had video boards gosh for 10 years and our students create commercials with businesses. We assign our media production class. They have to go out and gather customers to create commercials and we have a couple levels of commercials and advertising. So the students go out and get that advertising. Our steamer suite, our culinary club and FFA club oversee the menu, oversee the booking, oversee the advertising. Our construction students helped build the tables and our art classes painted a bunch of the tables in there. They've decorated the spaces and the business students oversee the operations of the space. So again, every student who works there has to communicate with the adults in the space as well as people who are interested in the space. They work together collaboratively with the teachers and the teams to present provide meals and they and they problem solve and they grow their business. Sometimes if expenses you know are outpacing the revenue, we have to have a conversation about that. This year our, the culinary club has expanded and started catering events around town. So we can actually, we're using them. We're hosting the Northwest IASB meeting March 5th and that'll be, you know, you'll get a chance to see the steamer suite in action if you will. The students are catering the meal. So I just look for those opportunities to bring, you know, these opportunities to students and what's interesting about the steamer suite, we actually went to a local bank where we went to a couple businesses and said, hey, we would like to name this after or share naming rights with this and we collaborated with a business, one of the local banks. It's actually called the central bank steamer suite because central bank sponsors and provides us funds up front to help offset the cost and, you know, just make that space that much more successful. So it generates revenue in that manner as well and we invited students to be a part of the program. In fact, one of the bank employees was our first steamer suite advisor and student student entrepreneur all call her because she just worked herself into a job. The bank was like, we love this guy and she is fantastic and they hired her after high school and, you know, sort of work with her as she was going to the college as well. So that paid dividends for her without a doubt. We started the ISA podcast to highlight the great work happening in Illinois and truly try to elevate public education. So as we close, we like to give our guests an opportunity to share some final thoughts and offer some advice for other Illinois superintendents about preparing students for a rapidly changing world. Well, be patient, be persistent and continue to work with area part and partnerships, persistence, what do they say, persistence, patience and partnerships. That's the three Ps of collective impact to get opportunities for your students. It's really all about the students and those opportunities. You know, look within what look at what you're doing already and where can students be working in that. We found, you know, a space that was a business catering. Many schools have culinary programs. Kids, businesses love to hire kids to do these, do these culinary events catering. Construction, we looked and found within our own construction projects a way to craft a space for students. Our construction program itself has actually remodeled our school at times. So we were patient. We gave this kids a full year and they really, when we put a secured entrance at the high school, they were the ones to do the work with the instructor and the trades. I mean, we had to have oversight. So begin partnerships, our architect work with us, electrical companies work with us. You know, look at look at what you have available. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. And the pathway work and get support, you know, the Illinois success network. You heard me reference that. They help regions develop teams that, you know, craft opportunities for students. Don't neglect that. The other thing I would say again is learn, learn from others. We have our construction management program team will be presenting at IASA on Saturday, February 14th at 915 AM. So if you're still there at AASA on Saturday, the 14th, join us at 915. Oak Park River Forest, Peoria and River Bend are all presenting with Verigee on how they created a paid internship through a partnership with the construction company that allowed students to get paid and learn along the way. So you have an urban suburban and a rural school experience on how they did that. And again, you have to talk to your boards. You have to work with your boards closely and your community partners to support financially these initiatives and efforts. So if you, if this is valuable to you, you'll find ways to help offset the cost or to take on the cost, if you will. Well, thank you, Dr. Hogue, for sharing what's happening in River Bend school district. Some really unique and innovative things happening up in your district. And I'm glad you were able to share them today. Yeah, I appreciate it. It was fun to do. (upbeat music)