Greater Jasper Consolidated School District

Preparing Students for what lies ahead

Guaranteeing future success one student at a time

Indiana’s Greater Jasper area is a thriving region, known for its economic vitality, educational excellence, and community spirit. Anchored by the city of Jasper, this dynamic community boasts a diverse economic landscape, with a strong emphasis on manufacturing and healthcare. The Greater Jasper Consolidated Schools District stands as a cornerstone, consistently guided by the vision of “Engaging students in educational excellence for lifelong success.”

Noting a focus on preparing students for the future, Superintendent, Dr. Tracy Lorey, shares, “I believe that our priorities for the students in our community are really to prepare them through their educational career, to be ready to be enrolled in a university or post-secondary learning opportunity of their choice, to be gainfully employed in a business or industry in our community or state, or to enlist in one of the Armed Services. Through their educational experiences, we ready them, and they have a good sense of what their post-secondary goals and aspirations are going to be.”

Career Exploration and Guidance

The district’s comprehensive career exploration programs extend from kindergarten to grade 12, following a progressive path from awareness to exploration, preparation, and training. Leveraging the Naviance college and career readiness software, middle and high school students evaluate their skills and strengths across 16 national career clusters. The curriculum introduces 32 career concentrators from 8th to 12th grade, guiding students through the stages of exploration to training.

“We offer guidance from 8th to 9th grade on those decisions and choosing an elective in the CTE area that makes sense,” Dana Kunz, Greater Jasper Career Counselor for Grades 6 through 12 expands. “As they move into 11th and 12th grade, we focus on the word training, and what that looks like in a future path in one of those 3E’s of enrollment, enlistment, or employment.”

The district also hosts large-scale career events, featuring over 100 industry partners, giving students the chance to explore the various options available to them. “The intentionality about how we are engaging our students in career awareness exploration, and the intentionality of what is happening educationally through those activities, and then the programs and coursework that we have available, is great,” asserts Dr. Lorey.

“Our local industry partners are key in ensuring that kids get a real-life experience, and they’re more than willing to open their doors to allow us to engage students to understand what careers are available locally.”

JES Student Lighthouse Team

Career and Technical Education

Expanding on the growth of the district’s CTE offerings, Jared Howard, Director of the Patoka Valley Career and Technical Cooperative, representing 9 school corporations in Indiana, details, “We have a local partner, Vincennes University at Jasper. Four or five years ago, we didn’t have any kids on their campus. Now we have over 200 students enrolled there for dual enrollments.”

Through this partnership, students can enroll in courses such as criminal justice, construction trades, automation, robotics, health sciences, human and social services, and business operations management. The district also offers welding, automotive, and aviation programs, which are hosted at the high school, another way for students to explore the many possibilities available.

“There are a large number of students that are enrolled in our cooperative programs. Many of them have certifications attached to them, and the majority of them have embedded work-based learning,” describes Howard. “We rely heavily on our industry partners and the fantastic partnership with Vincennes University. They provide tremendous opportunities for our students.”

Student Support and Guidance

Sean Jochum, Director of Guidance at Jasper High School, highlights the Greater Jasper Consolidated School District’s commitment to providing personalized support to students.

“We’ve got a lot of opportunities at our school and in our corporation,” he acknowledges.

“Our job is to give them a little bit of an individualized approach as to what they want to do, and make sure that they are aware of all the opportunities that they have, so they can take full advantage of everything that they have at their fingertips.”

He notes that the guidance department helps make students aware of future options, whether pursuing higher education through Advanced Placement or dual credit programs, or entering the workforce directly, making sure they feel engaged and supported through their education journey.

Dr. Lorey emphasizes, “We have established a profile of a graduate, which identifies attributes that we desire for our students to attain that set them up to be successful not only as a student but as a contributing adult in our community. When you pair that with all of the college and career coaching and guidance and then the course opportunities that are available to our students, you get a robust program that meets the needs of nearly every student.”

Safety and Mental Health

Addressing the critical importance of safety and security, Dr. Lorey relays that the district collaborates with the city of Jasper to employ school resource officers. “We feel like we have a great partnership with our local law enforcement,” she maintains.

“You will see them patrolling and just being a presence on our campuses in the mornings, whenever students are dropped off, or helping direct traffic when they’re being picked up at the end of the day. And just having that presence, I think just shows our community that we take safety seriously.”

Moreover, the district acknowledges the significance of adopting a holistic approach and staying attuned to the well-being of its students. “There was a shine down on a lot of increased anxiety and mental health needs of students during the pandemic, and Jasper has not been immune to that,” she admits.

“We have social workers that are assigned to each of our schools who work both proactively and then individually with students on their mental health needs. And that’s just as much of an important support service that we provide as is all of the security measures that we have in place.”

AP Chem Lab

Investment in Infrastructure

With a strategic approach to utilizing bonded resources, the district prioritizes the expansion of academic spaces, emphasizing the value of these investments. Dr. Lorey describes the recent completion of an expansion to the CTE wing at Jasper High School, underscoring the value of aligning learning spaces with the diverse range of career and technical education programs offered.

“We felt like it was important for those spaces to be set up in a way that it would be conducive to the kinds of hands-on learning opportunities that those types of courses afford, as well as making sure that they’re secure and safe as well,” she conveys.

Ireland Elementary School has also undergone an expansion, with additional classroom space meant to expand early learning opportunities in the community.

“We have been more intentional about pre-kindergarten learning and trying to expand resources there. We’ve had a developmental preschool program, but we have tried to reach out and gain more students into our school as 4-year-olds, to ready them for school-age kindergarten,” Dr. Lorey recounts. “We also are looking into adding additional pre-K space at Jasper Elementary School in the future.”

Future Vision

Looking ahead to 2024, Dr. Lorey outlines her key priorities, which include expanding resources for the youngest learners in pre-kindergarten programs and further enhancing college and career preparation opportunities.

“One of the things, in the state of Indiana, that we have been striving for is making sure that our students have access to the Indiana College core, which would afford them enough credits through a university that could get them an associate degree before graduating from high school,” she elaborates.

“We’ve been working in that direction, and we have lots of post-secondary credentials that our kids can currently earn, but continuing to focus on making sure that more and more kids have access to that, would be important.”

Greater Jasper Consolidated Schools is also exploring the integration of artificial intelligence into the learning environment.

“We’re at the cusp of a technological evolution where artificial intelligence is concerned, and we are really trying to focus in on how we might start to think about how artificial intelligence can impact the learning environment both from the standpoint of how it can be used, as a teacher or an educator to work efficiently and effectively, and to provide resources for students,” she explains.

“Then how do we teach our students to be able to utilize this new technology in a way that is conducive to helping them be a lifelong learner and not relying on it solely.”

These forward-looking initiatives demonstrate the Greater Jasper Consolidated School District’s dedication to equipping students with the opportunities and skills needed to navigate a constantly evolving world.

AT A GLANCE

Greater Jasper Consolidated School District

What: A Progressive K-12 School District

Where: Jasper, Indiana

Website: www.gjcs.k12.in.us