The three E’s of life readiness

And just like that, we find ourselves shifting from the hot summer days to the crisp cool evenings. I don’t know about you, but I welcome the beautiful days that the fall season brings upon us. It’s amazing to think that we have already reached the end of our first nine weeks and are now enjoying the last bits of Fall Break. It has been a whirlwind start for us, but visiting with students, staff, and families continues to rejuvenate me.

Talking with our students in the hallways and on the podcasts has brought great conversations and new ideas to help us build upon our school year. Students are appreciative and grateful for the experiences and opportunities they have at LPS, but our work is not done.

Anyone who has heard from me knows preparing Life Ready Graduates is a passion and focus of mine. We must tear down the roadblocks and create opportunities for growth and achievement, which is key to the success of our students. For us to be educationally successful, we must work in full partnership with our parents, guardians, and community stakeholders. We are committed to ensuring that our students are prepared for life after high school and believe in the mission of a 100% graduation rate, all means all. This is non-negotiable for us. Life readiness means ensuring that our students walk across the stage with one of the three E’s — enrollment, employment, or enlistment.

Students are either enrolled in college, a career or certification program, enlisted in one of the Armed Forces branches, or employed in a job that will continue to enhance their opportunities for advancement. Our goal is to ensure that our students succeed in their respective pathways.

As we work to improve each pathway, there is one that continues to transform and that is employment as over half of our student body will seek this after graduation. We have a relentless pursuit to determine student success in this area and workforce development is crucial to achieving this goal. Southwest Oklahoma is full of wonderful employment options for our students to stay local and earn higher wages. This community thrives on the work and dedication of our citizens and we are confident that our students will play a huge role in shaping the future of our community.

The jobs that many of our students will have when they graduate are yet to be created, but the pathways LPS is opening and expanding on are happening now. We can now longer think of the education system as we did when our parents or grandparents were in school. To note, it is not the same as when we were young either.

As we continue support for our enrolled and enlisted pathways, we must develop a pipeline for workforce development. We are creating partnerships and pathways with various organizations like our home builders association, economic development council, medical professionals, and hospitality organizations to name a few. If you are interested in supporting our students through workforce development training or job-shadowing opportunities, I would love to speak with you.

During my time here, we have implemented several programs that focus on practical hands-on learning. Programs like our Makerspace in elementary and the Lawton Technical Applications Program (LTAP) in middle school are seeing great success. Apprenticeship, internship, and mentorship programs in high school continue to thrive. Additionally, we have added the Life Ready Center and Aviation program to further the educational experiences for students.

It is an exciting time at LPS. I encourage readers to check out our LPS website (www.lawtonps.org) and our LPS ReView magazine (https://www.lawtonps.org/page/lps-review) to learn more about what is taking place in the district. The opportunities that our staff continues to create in preparing Life Ready Graduates are second to none. The work done by our staff, students, and families in and out of the classroom is what sets LPS apart from any other district! I am extremely honored to be part of this incredible team and look forward to sharing more of their accomplishments with you in the near future.

Kevin Hime is superintendent of Lawton Public Schools.