Lisa Lantrip
NEW PALESTINE — High school students who plan to become teachers will now be able to take college classes geared toward the profession at New Palestine High School starting this coming year.
The classes at NPHS will be available through a partnership with officials from Indiana University. It means students who plan to become teachers can get a head start on their teaching degree and finish college work as soon as two and half to three years after they graduate high school.
The program at NPHS, spearheaded by superintendent Lisa Lantrip and her administrative staff, is called “Grow Your Own.” It is designed to deal with the teacher shortage throughout the state. Lantrip noted the partnership with Indiana University is a tremendous opportunity for the district and their students.
“We are grateful for their willingness to join us in creating the next generation of teachers,” Lantrip said.
The NPHS Early College Program will now provide students interested in education with the unique opportunity to complete coursework early and save money on their path to becoming teachers.
“This program will be a huge benefit to students interested in teaching and to our district as we battle a difficult teacher shortage,” Lantrip said.
The NPHS Early College program is supervised by assistant principal Nick Mitchaner under the leadership of principal Jim Voelz with the support of Lantrip; the director of student services, Katy Eastes and the director of instruction, Miles Hercamp.
“We know other districts around the state are looking at creating ‘Grow Your Own’ programs, but we think we’re the first ones that we know of who have secured the partnership with I.U.,” Eastes said.
District officials in Southern Hancock have offered an Early College program since 2016 with a business concentration and say their goal all along was to expand the program and offering education classes does that.
“Our idea was to partner with a university to help this teacher pipeline and give students an opportunity,” Mitchaner said. “We’ll be able to also offer student teaching experience and then an interview for a position when they’ve earned a degree — we’re growing our own future teachers in our building with our own students.”
The district has a technical partnership with Vincennes University and were thrilled to create a union with officials from Indiana University.
“Some of those education courses we’re going to be offering through Vincennes will directly transfer over to the education degree program at I.U.,” Mitchaner said.
Students at NPHS will be able to take beginning educational classes so students who are teetering with the idea of becoming a teacher can explore their options and earn college credit.
The classes will be taught virtually by adjunct professors through Vincennes and will cost $75 a credit hour for thee three hour credit classes.
“What we’re offering is some of those basic education courses,” Mitchaner said. “We think we’re going to be able to cut off at least a year of a student’s time at a university.”
While the district will only be able to offer two such classes this coming school year, the goal is to expand the program as more and more students become involved.
“There are four education classes we’re looking at being able to offer by the start of the next school year,” Mitchaner said.
Eastes noted district officials have been planting the seed for years to have students be college and career ready when they leave NPHS and being able to expand on their early college program helps accomplish that goal.
“We’re creating pathway for the students to really see what their future could look like and get that started,” Eastes said. “There is no need to wait until they graduate high school.”
She noted the program is all about school and community pride.
“We know we have the best teachers around and they will be mentors to the young teachers who come in through this program,” Eastes said. “We think it is best if our own students can come back and be teachers.”
Officials from Eastern Hancock tell the Daily Reporter they too plan to offer educational focused college classes for students interested in teaching as soon as this coming year and are working to partner with Marian University to make it happen.
They hope to be able to have three different early college educational classes to offer would be teachers a head start. Students who take the courses at EH will more than likely have the credits count towards a degree at Marian University.
“At this time, we have not confirmed the dual credit piece with Marian University,” Jenn Lightcap, EHS, director of school counseling said. “We are still working with them to finalize if we can offer the education career courses as dual credit.”
Superintendent George Philhower said they have a high school teacher who used to teach elementary school who they plan to teach the class through an online provider.
“It will be our first year to offer this and we’re not sure how it’s all going to go, but we’re very excited about it,” he said. “We too feel it is our responsibility to help grow our future educators.”
Officials at EH plan to use grant monies so students will not have to pay for the college credit classes if the partnership pans out.
