Columbus State University, Phenix City Public Schools explore STEM partnership

When the $1.7 million Dyer Family STEM Center opens next school year, Phenix City Public Schools superintendent Randy Wilkes wants the teaching quality to match the state-of-the-art facility.

And with Columbus State University moving its College of Education and Health Professions from the main campus in midtown to the former Ledger-Enquirer property in downtown -- also in time for the fall 2016 semester -- teacher training will be closer to Phenix City.

All of which prompted Wilkes, student services director Joe Blevins and instructional technology specialist Tamara Sanders to meet a few weeks ago with CSU provost and vice president for academic affairs Tom Hackett and the college's dean, Deirdre Greer, to find ways both institutions can benefit from this convergence.

The result: a budding partnership that would include CSU providing professional development for Phenix City Public Schools to ensure what Wilkes calls "hands-on and minds-on" instruction and better engage students in science, technology, engineering and math.

A joint task force is being formed to finalize the details of this bi-state collaboration, with the hope of completing a memorandum of understanding, Wilkes said. Meanwhile, the school system is working on its application for a National Science Foundation grant for $1.2 million over three years, which would help pay for this training, he said.

"I am convinced and convicted that this is the best thing we can do for our kids to make them college and career ready," Wilkes told the Ledger-Enquirer in an interview Monday.

The ultimate goal of such a partnership, he said, is to transform the Bi-City area into a STEM community.

"This whole venture should not stop at 12th grade," Wilkes said, noting he also has met with officials from Troy University-Phenix City and Chattahoochee Valley Community College. "We need to make sure our teaching methods are relevant. There should not be the disconnect there has been in years past. We want to become a role model for other communities."

And when those newly minted teachers are better prepared to teach the STEM subjects, Wilkes wants it to be easier for local school districts to hire them, regardless of where they graduated, by forming reciprocal arrangements for certification across the Georgia-Alabama state line.

"This thing has the ability to change our entire community," he said, "to attract business and industry that it never has before."

As for Hackett, the potential partnership is personal as well as professional. He began his education career in Phenix City, first as an English teacher at Central High School (1980-85) then as assistant principal at South Girard School (1985-89). He moved to Alexander City, Ala., to become principal of W.L. Radney Elementary School (1989-94). After a stint as Alexander City Middle School principal (1994-97), he returned to Phenix City to become administrative assistant for operations (1997-2000). He then served as superintendent of Phenix City Public Schools (2000-03).

"I'm delighted to be a part of this," Hackett told the Ledger-Enquirer in an interview Monday. "I think Phenix City has great leadership with a visionary mayor (Eddie Lowe) and a visionary superintendent."

The plans Hackett has seen for the Dyer Family STEM Center, he said, "would make it one of the foremost science teaching facilities in any public school system that I'm familiar with."

In a news release, CSU listed its other efforts to improve STEM education:

Partnered with the Muscogee County School District to give every elementary student a chance to interact annually with the university's Coca-Cola Space Science Center.

Selected among five Georgia universities to participate in a national initiative to boost the number of outstanding STEM teachers and how they are prepared as part of the prestigious national Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowships program.

Received a $1.4 million grant in 2012 as part of the U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top program to produce more STEM teachers through UTeach Columbus, which is modeled after a successful University of Texas program.

Received a $1.2 million award from the National Science Foundation's Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, named after the famed computer chip inventor, for a proposal called CRAFT-STEM, (Columbus Region Academy for Future Teachers of STEM), which helps Columbus State recruit, develop and graduate an increasing number of high school STEM teachers.

Mark Rice, 706-576-6272. Follow him on Twitter@MarkRiceLE.

This story was originally published August 31, 2015 at 4:23 PM with the headline "Columbus State University, Phenix City Public Schools explore STEM partnership ."