PRIEST RIVER, Idaho — West Bonner County School District (WBCSD) was awarded $752,240 from the Idaho Career Ready Student grant to help expand the current Career Technical Education (CTE) programs.
WBCSD will be using $208,000 for equipment and $516,000 for a 4000 square-foot facility to house a classroom.
The grant will specifically support the CTE forestry and natural resources pathway for grades 7 -12. It will focus on:
Forestry Services and ManagementForest Products – Operation and ProductionWildlife Ecology and ManagementGIS/GPS/Drones and Mapping
A statewide forestry curriculum is in it’s development phase and was recently established Idaho Department of Education committee. This curriculum be implemented in the 2023-24 school year.
To develop the program they will be working with industry partners to:
Provide learning and internship opportunities not currently available to studentsDevelop skills and certification in conjunction with industry partners to speed up the development of work-ready studentsIncrease their Average Daily Attendance (ADA) by providing more hands-on, kinesthetic learning opportunities that appeal to non-traditional studentsIncrease graduation rate by providing more opportunities in multiple CTE pathways
WBCSD is “immensely grateful to the ICRS Council for its approval of [their] proposal.”
