Seven Districts. One Mission. Equal Opportunity.

Seven school districts. One regional CTE center. A 30-mile bus ride to give rural North Dakota students the same options a suburban high school takes for granted.

That's Grand Forks Public Schools' approach - and on Beyond the Box, Dr. Ronald Taylor sits down with Eric Ripley, Executive Director of Career & Technical Education, to unpack how it actually works.

Eric brings 28 years in CTE - a decade in the classroom, 18 as an administrator - and a sharp point of view on where the field is heading:

CTE is not for "non-college-track" kids. It's for every student making an informed decision about what comes next - four-year, two-year, apprenticeship, military, workforce.

Stakeholder design starts with students, not adults. Then instructors, parents, community, industry advisory committees - each with a real seat at the table.

AI isn't a threat to CTE. The transferable skills CTE has always built - communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving - are exactly what AI can't replace.

Regional collaboration is a master schedule problem before it's an educational one. Seven districts, seven bell schedules, seven calendars. Flexibility isn't a nice-to-have, it's the operating model.

One line from Eric worth sitting with: "If you find somebody that believes in CTE, they're going to welcome you into that family. It's not competitive."

That's the field at its best.

🎧 Video and audio links in the first comment.

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