NC Commerce Secretary brings school supplies, leaves with insights into LCPS workforce development efforts
A carload of school supplies collected as part of the annual Governor’s School Supply Drive rolled up to Northwest Elementary School on Monday, personally delivered by North Carolina Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley.
Secretary Lilley carved out time in his schedule to meet with LCPS Superintendent Brent Williams and Northwest Principal Christy Eubanks and hear presentations on the school district’s career exploration and workforce development programs, which touch students from kindergarten through high school.
September is Career Exploration and Workforce Readiness Month, highlighting the importance of helping students explore career opportunities and prepare for the workforce.
“You guys do this every day,” Lilley told the dozen LCPS administrators in attendance. “We don’t need to proclaim a month for you. That’s part of your everyday job. But or everyone else we want to remind them how critical it is that we’re demonstrating to students what the possibilities are for them, as they look out to their future and think about what’s next.”
Northwest was an appropriate perch from which to consider young students’ futures. A district leader in generating academic growth, it is one of a handful of schools in the state to currently hold model status as a STEM School of Distinction, a hard-earned designation from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, and is an Apple School of Excellence, recognizing teachers’ skills in incorporating technology in the classroom routine.
A group of fifth graders, led by science teacher Kailyn Stroud, showed Lilley what they know with a presentation on STEM learning, highlighting activities in their classrooms, including a lesson focused on hurricanes. Model structures they’d built were subjected to high water and strong winds – simulated by blasts from a hair dryer – to see if their engineering ideas held up.
“What we’re doing here at Northwest is representative of what we’re doing across our whole school system, which is everything that we can for the kids that we’re so richly blessed to serve,” Superintendent Williams said.
The Commerce secretary also heard a brief overview of LCPS’s workforce development efforts, from paid internships to apprenticeships that offer the opportunity for a well-paying job upon completion.
That work is “amazing,” Lilley said. “That’s exactly what we want to see.”
The superintendent joined Principal Eubanks in thanking Lilley and his staff for the school supply donation. “We appreciate this donation of school supplies and we particularly appreciate the fact that you brought them here yourself,” Williams said. “This investment in our students, our school system and our community means a great deal to us.”
The donation to Northwest consisted of more than 1,500 items. Statewide, the drive led by the Governor’s Office in partnership with the State Employees’ Credit Union collected more than 110,000 school supplies from state employees and other contributors. Each state agency was assigned a county to support, with Commerce collecting supplies for Lenoir County.
Joining Lilley in the delivery to Northwest were local NCWorks Career Center managers Jamie Wallace of Wayne County and Reeshema Walker of Craven County.
North Carolina Secretary of Commerce Lee Lilley, right, brought school supplies collected as part of the annual Governor’s School Supply Drive to Northwest Elementary School on Monday, to the delight of Principal Christy Eubanks and LCPS Superintendent Brent Williams.
