MITCHELL – The Mitchell Community Schools board voted Monday to add some new programs to Mitchell High School next year, those being digital manufacturing and building trades.
The new additions, which were unanimously approved by the board, will provide students with skills necessary to help the quickly find jobs in those respective fields.
When speaking about the digital manufacturing program, superintendent Brent Comer said it would initially serve as an opportunity for students at MCS, Orleans and Shoals schools, as part of the COSMOS collaboration, but could potentially be opened up to others in the future.
“I think is a great opportunity,” Comer said. “It offers yet another option in-house for our kids and this is absolutely a growing field and through research, whether it’s through COSMOS or some other things, this is an area of employment and career that this areas could really use the young guys and gals looking to go into this type of field. So, I think it’s a great opportunity for us. This would also be open for not only the COSMOS kids initially, but I can see this and some other programs, we may have some interesting discussions in the future that we may have some kids even outside of COSMOS that want to take this opportunity.”
Comer said MCS has already secured full funding for the first year of the program and he is confident they’ll be able to continue funding it going forward.
Building trades will also help prepare students for employment quickly after high school, along with potentially serving a greater purpose within the community.
“I can see a lot of benefits in the future. What direction this course of study would go can be really interesting. I think it can be a great opportunity for future partnerships with local government, whether that’s the City of Mitchell, or some other things. I think we’ve all heard some interests within the community of ‘boy, this could be a nice win-win for the city of Mitchell and high school kids as well.’ Not only to get us out there in the public a little bit more, but also perhaps do some future projects that would would help the City of Mitchell as well,” Comer said.
