Vandalia School Board Set to Obtain Additional OKAW Teacher to Address Growing Program

The Vandalia School Board on Monday approved the hiring of an additional Health Occupation/CNA Instructor to address growing interest and applicants for the program. Vandalia Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Garrison spoke during her report as part of the monthly meeting explaining that OKAW Vocational Program this year has their highest number of applicants for the coming school year. OKAW Director Nick Casey then expanded on that the 456 applications they have are about 125 more than normal and said that at this point with the Health Occupations/CNA program, they would have to turn away 70 students applying this year if they did not expand the program. They currently limit the CNA program to seniors while the Health Occupations classes address students looking to go into a wide variety of positions in the medical field. Along with looking to hire an additional instructor, the school board is looking at options to provide additional space for the program. In action items at the end of the meeting, the board unanimously approved by a 6-0 vote to obtain an additional Health Occupation/CNA instructor.