Individual Occupational Training
Lake Pend Oreille High School, Sandpoint, Idaho
Instructor: Colleen Ross
District PTE Coordinator: Alex Gray
Initial and Continued Funding: Ambrosiani-Pastore Foundation
LPOHS Principal: Rick Dalessio
LPOSD Superintendent: Dick Cvitanich
Designed to afford rural schools the opportunity to implement Professional-Technical programs in their curriculum, this program area requires students to acquire strong employment skills and model them on-the-job in their area of occupational interest with area employers.
As with other IOT programs in Idaho, Lake Pend Oreille High School affords students the opportunity to explore career options and prepare for specific employment. Unlike other programs in Idaho, Lake Pend Oreille High School, an alternative high school secured a grant and developed a work site completely dedicated to the alternative students. “2nds Anyone?” is a non-profit business that partners with a local senior citizens’ group to provide in-house mentoring opportunities by senior citizen volunteers. Students are exposed to purchasing, merchandising, accounting, bookkeeping, janitorial, construction and maintenance, landscaping, marketing, and most importantly, people skills. Funds generated from sales go toward student postsecondary scholarships and toward expenses and lunches for the senior citizens—approximately $6,000 last year. The store is also a “green” business, involving other school classes in culling buttons, and making quilts and cloth shopping bags from nonsellable clothing and material.
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