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The Coldwell Banker V.I.P. Realty , Inc. family would like to thank Lebanon and

all of Central Kentucky for an outstanding year, allowing us to serve the

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For An Outstanding Year!

We have buyers and we need new listings!

A16 NEWS • the lebanon enterprise • wednesday, january 25, 2012

■ EDUCATION

By Stephen Leganewseditor@lebanonenterprise.com

Local elected officials, community leaders, and edu-cators gathered Thursday morning to discuss Marion County Public Schools’ par-ticipation in the National Academy Foundation.

“We are excited to be part of the select few schools that are coming on board with NAF in the fall,” said Greg Conley, one of the Project Lead the Way teachers at Marion County High School.

Jennifer Wheeler, the inter-ventionist at Marion County High School, said the district was approached by the state about participating in a pilot program. Marion County is one of 10 school districts in Kentucky that has been invited to take part in NAF in the fall.

The NAF was founded in 1982 by Stanford Weill, chair-man emeritus of Citigroup Inc. The foundation’s pur-poses include preparing stu-dents for career and college and fostering partnerships between the business and education communities.

Last week’s meeting was intended to explain what is needed to implement the NAF in Marion County. This includes the creation of an advisory board composed of community members and local educators.

George Spragens of Farmers National Bank will be the chairman of the advi-sory board, and Robin Mills of Horizon Engineering has agreed to serve as vice chair-woman.

According to Conley, they are seeking more community partners to serve on the advi-sory board.

“We would like to have all of our local industry involved and the other small-er businesses that want to be

involved,” he said.Marion County

Superintendent Chuck Hamilton said internships, work study and site visits to local business and industry will give students “the chance to experience a full spectrum of courses in engineering principles and practice.”

Hamilton sees the dis-trict’s participation in NAF as another opportunity for stu-dents with similar interests to spend more time together in classes relevant to their career interests.

“We envision this as simi-lar to our present Hugh C. Spalding Academy, which will be a career-focused pro-gram,” he said. “The high school is in discussion of developing a Future Teacher Academy to grow our own instructors.”

Conley added that the NAF will enhance Project Lead the Way, a pre-engineering pro-gram that Marion County has already implemented. Several former Project Lead the Way students are working on engi-neering degrees.

“They will run together without any problems. NAF is helping us bring the acad-emy component to this set-ting, thus just adding to and enhancing an already suc-cessful program,” he said. “NAF will help us show how all classes interrelate.”

Conley said the NAF will target 40 to 60 incoming freshman with the under-standing that the program will grow as more students work through the program.

He added that the benefits aren’t just for the students, but in the long run, for the com-munity as well. By forming partnerships with local busi-nesses, they hope to provide students with networking and professional opportunities to help them succeed.

“In turn the community

will be reaping the benefits of our students coming back from college more prepared and ready to join the work force,” Conley said. “And they will have already made contacts with professional folks in our town.”

Anyone interested in serv-ing on the advisory board or any business interested in providing co-op or work study opportunities should contact Jennifer Wheeler at Marion County High School (692-6066) or Mary Taylor or Greg Conley at Marion County Area Technology Center (692-3155).

MCPS 1 in 10 selected for National Academy Foundation pilot programSchool district seeks community partners Project Lead the Way stu-

dents Tyler Curtis and Tye Furmon construct a game board counter during the digital electronics class last week. The counters would be used in place of rolling dice during a game.

Photo submitted

“In turn the commu-nity will be reaping the benefits of our students coming back from college more prepared and ready to join the work force. And they will have already made con-tacts with profession-al folks in our town.”

Greg ConleyProject Lead the Way teacher