Along with workforce development, the district is also preparing students for postsecondary education. “We’ve spent a lot of time building community stakeholder relationships with the businesses within the county,” Dr. Jennifer Beagan, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Community Impact portrays. “What that investment of time and resources helps us with is personalized learning pathways. Through those pathways that we intricately work through across our campuses, we’re ensuring that students receive instruction that is tailored to their levels of readiness as well as their career goals.” The SDIRC is also working hard to meet the expectations of parents and the community. Dr. Kyra Schafte, Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing, highlights, “We’re a choice district, and each of our schools has unique choice programming. We are auditing programming through innovation architecture mapping to make sure our choice of programming spans K-12.” Capital investments have followed this vision of innovation. With students describing the district’s media centers as dated libraries that didn’t represent the world around them, SDIRC knew it was time to update these spaces. The newly redesigned Student Union areas include 3D printers, Esports labs, entrepreneurship hubs, and even device repair stations. “There are high top tables in there, there’s flexible, modular seating. Everything is on wheels to be reconfigured,” describes Dr. Schafte. “It’s pretty exciting when we think of capital.We are reimagining spaces with students at the forefront.” 8 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 07
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