River Bend Career & Technical Center

Why River Bend Career & Technical Center was nominated

River Bend Career and Technical Center is a regional technical center that serves high school students from five sending school districts in Vermont and New Hampshire. It is a located in a very rural part of the state. Its high sending schools are small -- each with no more than 300 students in grades 9 through 12, and some with half that number. On the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V)accountability measure for nontraditional program concentration, River Bend Career and Technical Center has the highest performance in Vermont. Defined as "CTE concentrators enrolled in programs leading to a field non-traditional for their gender, as well as non-binary, non-conforming, and transgender students," River Bend Career and Technical Center's three year average is 21.01%, compared to the overall state average of 11.71%. River Bend Career and Technical Center believes this data represents work the center has done to create a safe, respectful, inclusive culture. Despite the fact that they have the highest performance on this measure in the state, the school's leadership team recognizes that there is more work to be done. Their Perkins V Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment identified areas for improvement, and their four year plan calls for continued work to increase the number of students enrolling in programs that are nontraditional for their gender. In addition, after full staff training on preventing bullying and harassment and identifying and intervening when bullying and harassment occur, River Bend Career Technical Center gave deliberate consideration to creating learning environments that are safe and respectful for every student. As a result of this work, River Bend Career and Technical Center determined that they needed to have zero tolerance for displays of the Confederate flag (e.g. on student clothing, backpacks, notebooks, vehicles, etc.). Brian Emerson, the school's Director (Principal), reports that it was hard work, but they stayed the course. He notes that the work River Bend Career and Technical Center has done over the past five years has positioned them to continue to address issues of equity and inclusion and to work toward racial equity in a very rural community with limited racial diversity.