However, the $97 million facility doesn’t just allow the district to grow existing programs; it also allows them to bring new CTE pathways, including precision manufacturing, which will launch in the 2025-26 school year.
Superintendent Devin Padavil said the new pathway comes as GISD works to prepare students to be future-ready in a community forecasted to play a heavy part in the semiconductor industry once the Samsung semiconductor manufacturing facility in nearby Taylor opens.
The overview
The FRLC puts a majority of the district’s CTE programs in one space with room to grow, CTE Director Bretton Schulz said.
Before the FRLC, students would enter a competitive lottery to enroll in programs like agriculture and automotive. Schulz said while the district was not able to entirely remove its lottery system, capacity in each program grew, allowing more students to participate.
By centrally locating the majority of higher-level CTE courses typically taken by juniors and seniors, lower-level CTE capacity at East View and Georgetown high schools also expanded, he said.
The new precision manufacturing pathway will be a partnership with CelLink Corporation, a California-based manufacturer of flexible circuits, which opened a site in Georgetown last year.
Pathways forward
In GISD, students can choose from a variety of courses that may be offered at their campus or the FRLC.
- Health science
- Hospitality and tourism
- Human services
- Information technology
- STEM
- Transportation and logistics
The manufacturing program—slated to open for student enrollment in the 2025-26 school year—will be formed under a Pathways in Technology Early College High School program, Schulz said.
As a PTECH program, the district will establish its precision manufacturing program through a partnership with Austin Community College as its higher education partner. CelLink will assist the district as its industry partner, Schulz said, along with the Georgetown Manufacturing Alliance, a coalition of local manufacturers formed through the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce.
Next year’s freshmen will be able to start the program with one college-credit course and another class in manufacturing, in addition to their typical high school classes, he said.
The pathway will help students prepare for a future career in precision manufacturing, which has evolved over time as an industry, Padavil said.
“When we think of manufacturing it’s nuts and bolts in a factory on an assembly line,” Padavil said. “That is not what is coming into Georgetown.”
He said the current plan is for students to complete the course pathway and earn both their associate degree as well as an industry certification so that they can enter the workforce directly.
An added benefit of this partnership, Padavil said, is that while students would not be guaranteed to be hired for a job with CelLink, the company has promised to provide job interview opportunities to students who graduate from the program once it is in place.
A closer look
CTE is not just vocational education, as these opportunities also help students be better prepared for more rigorous academic opportunities after high school, according to the Texas Education Agency.
In GISD, there are 10 CTE-associated career concentrations that provide pathways to certification in a variety of fields. Schulz said students can take as many courses as their schedule can accommodate, but if they have a particular goal to achieve a certification or learn a specific skill, they might choose to focus on one area.
“We have several students that do multiple engineering programs, or a health science and an engineering program—build a plane and then go get their [nursing assistant certification] right afterwards,” he said. “But we also want students to be able to learn as much quality content as possible when they’re in high school.”
The district partners with many local businesses and volunteers to provide educational opportunities that might otherwise be out of reach, Schulz said. These opportunities allow students to be better prepared for what jobs in their chosen industry might really look like, making them more employable, Padavil said.
Community partners
GISD has partnered with many businesses and volunteers to enhance its CTE programming.
- Automotive: Caliber
- Cosmetology: Sport Clips Haircuts
- Health science: St. David’s HealthCare
Jayma Vaughan, a GISD parent and a CTE director in Austin ISD, said her son has been excited to go to school, largely because of his participation in welding and automotive programming.
She said he starts his day at GHS, where the welding program is based, before going to his core classes and then to the FRLC for the automotive program.
Students have the option to drive themselves or use district transportation to go between the FRLC and their high school campus.
Schulz said the district has adjusted the schedule at the FRLC to accommodate travel times between campuses. When possible, students spend either the morning or the afternoon at the FRLC to reduce travel times.
It’s a process he said the district is working to refine, just a couple of weeks into the new school year. However, he said GISD is generally finding success in transitioning students from campus to campus.
Going forward
Much of the FRLC was designed with flexible space, Schulz said.
Entire wings of the building can be reconfigured based on the needs of students and course offerings from the district, he said, as they were constructed with movable walls and doorways.
This is because as the needs of the local workforce change, the district is working to meet those needs and help students get their foot in the door for employment post-graduation.
With the upcoming manufacturing program as just one example, Padavil said the district is planning to continue working with community partners to identify future programs with similar benefits to students.
“This region of Williamson County is at the very beginning of what’s going to become a manufacturing expansion,” Padavil said. “There’s going to be incredible demand for workforce.”
