Career school partnership sparkles

West Ashley students make strides by attending Garrett Academy classes

Dana Brown's life has gotten better this year because of a special partnership between his school, West Ashley High, and Garrett Academy of Technology.

The schools' cooperation enabled Brown and 18 other students to take vocational classes at Garrett that neither West Ashley nor any other district high school offers. Students take their academic classes at their home school, West Ashley.

Mic Smith
The Post and Courier

Dana Brown, a junior at West Ashley High, cuts an auto body panel Friday in an auto-collision repair class at Garrett Academy of Technology.

"This is the most significant progress that has come about in career education in Charleston County since they built Garrett in 1994," said career counselor Mark Epstein. "And we haven't even scratched the surface."

Hundreds of students could benefit from the expansion of this arrangement, he said. Take Brown, a junior who enrolled in an auto-collision repair class at Garrett in North Charleston this year. He's stopped cutting school, is more interested in his classes, and his failing grades have risen to passing ones, she said. Brown said he doesn't get in trouble anymore because he wants to keep taking the auto-collision repair class.

Garrett is the district's lone vocational school, which means it's the only place where students can take classes such as masonry, cosmetology and auto mechanics.

West Ashley is the only high school in the district that has made this agreement with Garrett a reality, and Epstein said it's not because downtown district officials were pushing to make it happen.

"We did this because of our strong

has shown it is successful. Many high school students aren't exposed to what Garrett offers, and some of those trade programs need to be put into more high schools, he said.

"I think we would look to expand it next year to other schools," he said.

Olson said officials don't have any concrete plans to grow the partnership but said they are looking at other ways to create more options and choices for students. Some of the trade programs need specific types of buildings and can't be housed in traditional classrooms, and Olson said officials are evaluating schools' course offerings, buildings and the community's needs to see what needs to be done in the future.

Epstein hopes the 19 West Ashley students will continue taking classes at Garrett next year, and he plans to invite a new crop of West Ashley students to do the same.

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.