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THE WINCHESTER STAR: Wexton checks out vocational programs at Clarke County High School

By Anna Merod

Robots and chinchillas were spotted during Rep. Jennifer Wexton’s tour through Clarke County High School on Thursday.

As Wexton, D-10th, walked through the halls and classrooms of the high school for about 40 minutes, she was able to get a first-hand look at the opportunities students have in the school’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.

“It’s really impressive what they’re doing to train these kids for the jobs and careers of the future,” Wexton said after the tour of CCHS.

Wexton is on the Science, Space and Technology Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives where she’s focused on maintaining a grant to help students work with NASA as well as expanding access to rural broadband. Access to internet is a problem for many Clarke County High School students, principal Dana Waring mentioned during the tour.

Working on more funding for STEM education is a joint effort between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, Wexton said, but she thinks more could be done by President Donald Trump’s administration.

“It’s a bipartisan effort but the [Trump] administration does not seem to value the educational programs as much as I think that they should,” she said.

Wexton briefly stopped in an engineering class then checked out a robot put together by students.

The robot is being built by CCHS students for an upcoming competition where their creation will have to complete several tasks including a pull-up. Right now, the robot can move diagonally and sideways and even dance, said science teacher Phillip Facemire.

Some parts have been recycled from former robots while other parts were created by a 3D-printer, he added.

“It’s not the talent that we lack, it’s the resources that we lack,” Facemire told Wexton.

After the robots, Wexton got to check out a furry subject when she visited an agriculture education room with more than 20 animals, including a chinchilla, two cats and a dog. The animals are used at various time throughout animal classes, including one on “small animal care.”

Just the other day, the livestock class was vaccinating sheep at local farms, teacher Mary Hardesty said.

“We get lots of real life hands-on learning,” she said.

One CCHS freshman Eddie Barber, 15, said he’d rather attend the livestock class every day over most of the other classes he takes. Eddie said he wants to be a farmer after he graduates.

Wexton also spoke with CCHS senior Madison Fuller, 18, who has been working as an emergency department technician at Winchester Medical Center since July in addition to taking high school classes. Fuller told Wexton she plans to study nursing at Lord Fairfax Community College.

“We need more nurses,” Wexton told Madison.