News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
White County Schools want to open a new cybersecurity and coding program of study.
CTE Director Lane Ward said it is one of the ideas the district has considered for a possible $1.5 million state CTE grant. Ward said student interest has grown large enough to create the courses.
“One of the reasons that’s a focus of ours, because we really want to play on a new partnership that we have with Tennessee Tech and their computer science department in a dual-enrollment course that we started this fall,” Ward said. “Especially cybersecurity and coding, they are high-demand and high-wage careers.”
Ward said the money would be used to hire an instructor and also outfit a lab. Ward said the grant application is due in February. Feedback will be shared in April.
“We feel like we can serve most of the programs especially the ones that I mentioned even down to our middle school for career exploration,” Ward said. “A million dollars for high school programming and $500,000 for middle school programming and we’ve been trying to be very strategic. This grant is above and beyond the annual funding that we already receive.”
Ward said a few more ideas are being explored beyond cybersecurity. Ward said those include equipping a mobile production truck for the high school’s media program and updating greenhouse spaces.
