Sara Sandstrom-Kobi, Nederland. When the 2020-2021 school year starts, Nederland Middle Senior High School (NMSHS) will be implementing a new educational program to their existing course offerings. It is new to Nederland. It is a clear vision. It is exciting!

NMSHS Principal Rick Elertson has led a team of teachers and community members to make Career and Technology Education (CTE) in Nederland a reality. These programs are exclusive to NMSHS.  

It is no secret that enrollment at Nederland schools, as well as other Boulder Valley School District schools, have been on a decline. There are multiple reasons for this decline. When you are a small school in a small community, those declining numbers are especially painful. 

During the last few years, different ideas have been bounced around about how to adjust Nederland schools. Just over a year ago, NMSHS formed a committee to bringing serious change. Mr. Elertson says, “After many years of watching Nederland High School students’ eyes light up at the prospects of taking CTE down at Boulder Tech in BVSD, only to see the light disappear when they find out how inaccessible the programs are for students in the mountains, my team realized that more had to be done to make our school a destination for ALL students.”

The team bringing CTE to Nederland are project leaders and teachers Mark Mabbett and Dan Wade, teachers Theresa Redmon, Nic Stader, Kira Badyrka, Mariah Colton, Scott Geels and community members Jenny Nunemacher and Stephen LeFaiver. 

Boulder Valley School District has also been 100% committed to bringing CTE to NMSHS. Arlie Hoffman, the CTE director for the district, has worked side by side with the team in Nederland to make this happen. As well as Dr. Sam Messier, Dr. Margaret Crespo, Ginny Vidulich and Jen Garfield. 

Principal Elertson said that after getting a team in place, the first hurdle was bringing a vision together. They needed to be passionate about what they were doing and be able to articulate why this was needed. They felt that they needed to provide something in the mountains that matched the environment and connected the classroom to the real world. 

Mr. Wade says, “By working with students, community stakeholders, district leadership and the school’s faculty, we were able to create career-specific pathways that are not only highly relevant to our community but also marketable throughout Colorado and the west. What better way to prepare our students for the future than to leverage the natural environment in which we chose to live!”

The team felt that there has been a disconnect with where we live, and the curriculum offered at NMSHS and wanted to connect students more with the environment. They decided on three areas of focus to begin with, first responders, outdoor pursuits and trades. They soon realized that CTE would be the best way to bring this to Nederland. 

After many meetings with teachers to see who is qualified or who could become qualified to teach these courses, five pathways of study were decided upon. They are: Outdoor Leadership, Resource Conservation and Environmental Science, Computer Science, Business/Entrepreneurship and Engineering and Construction. The courses will range from wilderness survival to snow science to forestry management to game design to finance to building materials to heavy equipment operator. Not every class will be offered each semester. There is a process and system of prerequisites to follow. 

Mr. Wade says, “Options exist whether students are interested in learning more about nature, ecology, and management of public lands or careers in forestry, guiding and ski patrol. CTE courses give students work-based experiences backed by rigorous academic expectations, that in conjunction with our standard and advanced placement courses, will better prepare graduates to seek out career or higher education options.”

Seeing the list of classes that will be offered, the CTE certificates that will be available, and the careers associated with these pathways is nothing short of exciting. My elementary aged son was reading over my shoulder as I was looking at the information about CTE at NMSHS. His eyes got big and he pointed and said, “I am going to do that one or that one!” Not even in middle school yet and he is excited to go to high school, that is a teacher-mom’s dream. 

This is not an initiative set up to just see how it goes for a few years or as Mr. Elertson put it, this is not a “throw it against the wall and see if it sticks” program. This fills a void in education that does not exist in the community. It is providing equitable access to career opportunities for mountain students. 

Mr. Elertson and his team knew that they had to create something sustainable. He says, “In order to do that in a rural community like Nederland you have to grow from within.” Much of the staff has credentials to teach in more than one CTE area. 

Do not read this and assume that NMSHS is now only a CTE school because that would be completely inaccurate. There have been some changes in physical education credits and some electives, but other than that, core classes remain. Advanced placement classes remain. Theater, music and art classes remain. 

This team that developed this new vision for Nederland High School is already exploring options for the Middle School. They have long term goals of partnering with a community college that could provide concurrent enrollment credit. Their vision is not complete at this point. They have only just started to get the ball rolling. 

The opportunities that these courses create for students can be life changing. Mr. Wade says, “Providing a robust and diverse set of course offerings within these programs will provide students space to truly customize their education to suit their personal interests, try new experiences, and progress their academic and future career goals. As teachers, mentors and advisors, my colleagues and I are incredibly thrilled to have the opportunity to share our passions and wealth of career experience in these fields with our students.”

Curriculum has been developed, funding is there, NMSHS staff is committed to bringing CTE to Nederland. The administrators, teachers and staff have persisted and persevered to make this a reality. This is not an easy task. They have moved mountains to make this happen for the community and the students in Nederland schools.

(Originally published in the June 11, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)