Local tech-focused high school could be state model

The leader of a nonprofit focused on high school education reform pointed to the new engineering, math, science and technology-focused high school slated to open in Havelock next fall as a possible model for other new schools in the state.

Tony Habit, president of the public-private partnership N.C. New Schools Project, was the guest speaker on Tuesday at a meeting of community, school and business leaders at the Craven County Schools offices on Trent Road.  

Habit said the new Early College Eastern Applied Science and Technology High School (E.A.S.T.) could be a prototype for new schools elsewhere in the state.

The school, to be located in a renovated field house at Havelock Middle School, is aimed to give students hands-on projects in engineering through a partnership with Fleet Readiness Center East at the Cherry Point air station.

Habit said education should move away from the 20^th century “dinosaur” model that he said is inflexible and does not have the “nimbleness” to meet individual students’ needs. He pointed to the state’s early colleges as an innovative alternative.

The state’s 70 early colleges graduate students in five years with a high school diploma as well as an associate’s degree or transferable college credits.

There were 13 early colleges in the state in 2005. Craven Early College High School opened on Craven Community College’s New Bern campus in 2006. The district is hoping to open its second early college next fall in Early College E.A.S.T.

Habit said that the new early college could be a model for other schools. There is a state initiative involving the JOBS Commission chaired by Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton that is looking at prototypes of engineering-focused schools that will give students hands-on learning projects through partnerships with health care, energy, agriculture and biotechnology and aerospace businesses.

“You have a way that learning is far more rigorous and far more engaging and far more applied to what’s actually happening in our economy,” Habit said, explaining that those schools could become “anchor schools,” and could possibly be replicated throughout the state.

Craven’s new early college high school will be in walking distance of Craven Community College’s Havelock campus, where the Institute of Aeronautical Technology is housed. New Schools Project provided $1.5 million over five years to help finance the project.

“We see that approach as really very promising because North Carolina, when you think about our competitive advantage in the state and as a country, we have a great deal of work to do in accelerating student performance in the (science, technology, engineering and math) areas,” he said.

Allan Quinn, dean of the new early college, said about 25 students applied to attend the college in its first year. Their applications are now being reviewed.

The remainder of the 50 students the college hopes for in its first year will be students who were not initially chosen by lottery to attend Craven Early College, but who are also interested in Early College E.A.S.T.

 “We’re looking forward to getting started in the future,” Quinn said.

Laura Oleniacz can be reached at 252-635-5675 or at loleniacz@freedomenc.com.