Palm Beach County School Board member wants more training in the trades for students
Palm Beach County School Board member Matthew Jay Lane wants the school district to expand its career and technical education program so more graduating seniors who are not college-bound can step into a career in the trades.
"My goal is to create an internal pipeline for our local skilled workers for the businesses in our community and to create a pipeline for our students who might not otherwise have jobs to change the trajectory of their lives," Lane said during the June 4 school board meeting.
The district already has a wide set of offerings for students who want to find after-high school work in everything from agriculture and construction to sales and transportation. Students can leave high school with industry certifications for a long list of job types, including emergency medical technician, automobile technician, medical assistant and pharmacy technician.
But Lane said he wants the district to do more.
"From my research, one of the biggest complaints that I found was that when students across the country graduate, they've only taken one or two courses in the trades," he said. "So they don't possess the skills they need to immediately go to work."
For generations, schools offered vocational or "shop" classes to students who did not plan to go to college after graduation. Over time, with jobs requiring a college degree typically paying more than those that don't, some schools emphasized college preparedness and de-emphasized vocational classes.
Bachelor's degree holders still earn significantly more than non-college graduates. The median annual salary for those with a bachelor's degree was $80,236, according to 2024 figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For those whose highest educational attainment was a high school diploma, the median annual salary was $48,360.
Not all college degrees are worth the same in the job market, though. The average salary for a college graduate with a humanities degree is $54,258, according to ZipRecruiter. That's less than the $62,400 average annual salary of an electrician or plumber, and it's less than the $58,240 average annual salary of an HVAC technician.
There might not be a hungry market for English or philosophy majors, but people who can drive a forklift, hang drywall or wire a building are in extremely high demand. Some of that is tied to the economic cycle, and some of it is because older tradesmen are "aging out" of the workforce and aren't being replaced quickly enough by younger workers.
"For every five people who retire, only one is trained to replace them," Eligio Marquez Veray, district associate dean for Trade and Industry at Palm Beach State College, was quoted as saying in a news article on the school's website.
Lane said he's been told of that problem, too.
"I've spoken to many, many business leaders in our community about this issue," he said. "One business owner told me a story. He needed 150 employees to finish a project, but he only could recruit 85. He had a deadline to finish the project, and he didn't have enough skilled workers to do so. This is a standard problem in the industry."
Palm Beach State College is already working to connect young people to jobs in the trades. It got a $1.75 million grant last year to boost those efforts, and Klein Tools and Lowe's have provided financial support to the school's Construction Trades Center for Workforce Innovation.
Precisely how the the school district will change its career and technical program is unclear. The district plans to hold a series of workshops on it this fall.
Lane's colleagues welcomed his push for an expanded career and technical program.
"You're preaching to the choir here," board member Karen Brill said.
"This topic is a big deal," added board member Marcia Andrews.
Lane said preparing more students to enter the workforce after high school is an imperative, given the district's college matriculation rates.
A district report from May 2024 found that 58% of students who graduated in 2023 were enrolled in a college or university that fall. That percentage has been stuck in the upper 50s since 2019, when it was 64%.
The report also found significant racial and ethnic gaps in the going-to-college rates of district students.
Only 49% of Hispanic graduates in 2023 were enrolled at a college or university that fall. For Black graduates, it was 54%, and for white graduates it was 70%.
Lane said he wants to make sure students who don't go to college are prepared to feed a hungry labor market. Employers want that, too, he said.
"We have excellent career and technical education programs in our district, and the business community would like us to focus on enhancing those career and technical education programs," he said.
Want more education news? Sign up for ourExtra Credit weekly newsletter, delivered every Friday!
Wayne Washington is a journalist covering education for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County School District looking to expand training in trades
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
31 minutes ago
- CNBC
Here are the three reasons why tariffs have yet to drive inflation higher
Despite widespread fears to the contrary, President Donald Trump's tariffs have yet to show up in any of the traditional data points measuring inflation. In fact, separate readings this week on consumer and producer prices were downright benign, as indexes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that prices rose just 0.1% in May. The inflation scare is over, then, right? To the contrary, the months ahead are still expected to show price increases driven by Trump's desire to ensure the U.S. gets a fair shake with its global trading partners. So far, though, the duties have not driven prices higher, save for a few areas that are particularly sensitive to higher import costs. At least three factors have conspired so far to keep inflation in check: companies hoarding imported goods ahead of the April 2 tariff announcement, the time it takes for the charges to make their way into the real economy, and the lack of pricing power companies face as consumers tighten belts. "We believe the limited impact from tariffs in May is a reflection of pre-tariff stockpiling, as well as a lagged pass-through of tariffs into import prices," Aichi Amemiya, senior economist at Nomura, said in a note. "We maintain our view that the impact of tariffs will likely materialize in the coming months." This week's data showed isolated evidence of tariff pressures. Canned fruits and vegetables, which are often imported, saw prices rise 1.9% for the month. Roasted coffee was up 1.2% and tobacco increased 0.8%. Durable goods, or long-lasting items such as major appliances (up 4.3%) and computers and related items (1.1%), also saw increases. "This gain in appliance prices mirrors what happened during the 2018-20 round of import taxes, when the cost of imported washing machines surged," Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, said in his daily market note. One of the biggest tests, though, on whether the price increases will prove durable, as many economists fear, or as temporary, the prism through which they're typically viewed, could largely depend on consumers, who drive nearly 70% of all economic activity. The Federal Reserve's periodic report on economic activity issued earlier this month indicated a likelihood of price increases ahead, while noting that some companies were hesitant to pass through higher costs. "We have been of the position for a long time that tariffs would not be inflationary and they were more likely to cause economic weakness and ultimately deflation," said Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust. "There's a lot of consumer weakness." Indeed, that's largely what happened during the damaging Smoot-Hawley tariffs in 1930, which many economists believe helped trigger the Great Depression. Tilley said he sees signs that consumers already are cutting back on vacations and recreation, a possible indication that companies may not have as much pricing power as they did when inflation started to surge in 2021. Fed officials, though, remain on the sidelines as they wait over the summer to see how tariffs do impact prices. Markets largely expect the Fed to wait until September to resume lowering interest rates, even though inflation is waning and the employment picture is showing signs of cracks. "This time around, if inflation proves to be transitory, then the Federal Reserve may cut its policy rate later this year," Brusuelas said. "But if consumers push their own inflation expectations higher because of short-term dislocations in the price of food at home or other goods, then it's going to be some time before the Fed cuts rates."
%3Amax_bytes(150000)%3Astrip_icc()%2FTAL-header-exterior-rosemead-house-british-columbia-ROSEMEADHOUSE0625-d06d90df300d4ba594b3c86bbadac354.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
Travel + Leisure
41 minutes ago
- Travel + Leisure
A 118-year-old English Manor Hotel on British Columbia's Vancouver Island Just Reopened With 1,500 Antiques and Set Pieces From Your Favorite TV Shows
Rosemead's quiet, forest-like setting gives it an English countryside feel, yet it's only a 10-minute drive from downtown Victoria. The owner collected antiques from movie and TV sets, his favorite London hotels, and at least 50 manor estates. Janevca's dining room is anchored by a huge faux tree 'blooming' with cascading pink cherry blossoms; the leaves will change out seasonally. Modern amenities co-exist with heritage—think clawfoot tubs and classic mantle clocks, but also self-flushing heated toilets with high-tech Kohler bidets. The cushy king beds are topped with $23,000 mattresses from 100-year-old luxury Swedish label Duxiana. The magnetism of Rosemead House begins not inside, but at street level. To reach the hilltop hotel in Esquimalt, British Columbia, guests pass through the actual Buckingham Palace gates used on the London set of Netflix's The Crown and climb the tree-lined driveway to a regal porte-cochère and a large manor door. The Edwardian mansion, originally designed as a private home in 1906 by architect Samuel Maclure, has lived many lives. Most recently it was the Old English Inn: cherished by locals who got married or honeymooned there, chastised by a few as the Fawlty Towers of the area, and universally known to be showing its age. In 2015, Lenny Moy, president and founder of real estate development company Aragon Properties, purchased it and the surrounding land for a master-planned community of heritage-inspired condos called Oakwoods, located behind the manor. Turns out, the hotel restoration would become Moy's decade-long, antique-fueled passion project, and it began while visiting one of his daughters in London who was attending fashion school there. 'I started going to auctions, mostly virtually, and buying furniture slowly,' Moy says. 'At first, it was just a few 18th- and 19th-century accent pieces.' Eventually, he'd purchased from more than 50 manor estates, movie set sales, and legendary London hotels The Dorchester and The Savoy. 'I knew I had to buy 130 percent to get to a solid 100 percent.' Crate by carefully packaged crate, a couple thousand treasures crossed the pond, filling an 8,000-square-foot warehouse at least twice over. Today, around 1,500 of these antiques decorate Rosemead House where Moy and interior designer Karen Wichert followed the phrase 'Heritage Meets Discovery' as their north star, blending past with present everywhere. The result is a decadent, fearless, money-is-no-object historical rebirth painted with a maximalist brush. Interior of the hotel lobby. I'm Rosemead's very first guest, staying in the Lancaster Room, which I reach by climbing two sets of staircases, one thrillingly narrow. With maze-like hallways and no elevator, a guide to one's room is essential at first. ('This way, Miss Nanton…') With peekaboo ocean views, a reading nook, and countless antiques—including a tiny vintage Royal Crown Derby China seal paperweight from England that I desperately want to take home to my toddler—the 433-square-foot room is comfy, not stuffy, despite its heirloom touches and ancient bones. At once I'm wrapped up in the step-back-in-time fantasy of it all. That energy hits deepest in the Crown Mezzanine library, just above the lobby. I sink into a coral-hued chesterfield chair and look up at a gargantuan faux 17th-century Rembrandt, which doesn't look fake at all. The red curtains and podiums adjacent, as well as my seat, are all from the original Queen's bedroom set of The Crown. (As Moy tells me later, the painting was also purchased from a set; Kevin Hart's 2024 heist film, Lift , I learn . ) Quickly at home in my new manor life, I explore the manicured grounds—complete with a small amphitheatre that will likely host future music performances—before pulling up a barstool at in-house restaurant Janevca's busy lounge for a pre-dinner cocktail. Sipping a bright Amalfi Stone Sour mixed with London dry gin and limoncello, a restored stained-glass window to my left catches the golden hour light. It's one of the original manor windows, making it easy to imagine a century's worth of guests sitting right here before me doing just the same. Here, my full review and everything you need to know about Rosemead House. There are 14 rooms in the Manor Collection, located inside the historic building, and another 14 in the Grove Collection, in a new building behind the main house. The latter are slightly more accessibly priced and five are pet-friendly. Long-stay suites with kitchens will open in due course. The most opulent room at Rosemead? The Manor Collection's Dynasty Suite, decorated in a full Chinoiserie theme with a vaulted ceiling, staircase leading up to a second-floor bedroom, and private balcony. 'Each suite is like a real-life museum,' says Moy while touring me through a handful of the 28 rooms, each with its own UK-inspired name. Edwardian writing desks with intricate inlays, gilded-framed mirrors, and reupholstered vintage furnishings live in tandem with patterned William Morris wallpaper on the walls, Ann Sacks basketweave motif tiles on the bathroom floors, and minibars concealed inside sideboards from The Dorchester auction (this way, you don't hear them hum). It's a detailed mash-up of hues, textures, and patterns, but doesn't feel overwhelming. 'We really set out to respect the original design, adding modern elements and layers of color to evolve it,' Moy adds. To that end, each room's unique, sometimes quirky, architecture is taken into account, like the Oxford Loft's sharply slanted ceiling balanced by adjacent bell-shaped chandeliers, or Canterbury Corner's exposed timber trusses complemented by a vintage wooden globe (open it up to find a secret bar inside). The interior of Janevca by Chef Andrea Alridge. Alchemic wood-fired cooking is the culinary core of Janevca Kitchen & Lounge, which opened well before the hotel in fall 2024 (and is a portmanteau of Moy's children's names: Janelle, Evan, Cailee). It's helmed by executive chef Andrea Alridge, who previously cooked at Vancouver's coveted Savio Volpe. Downstairs there are two event spaces as well as a private-dining Granite Room with a rock wall showcasing racks of fine wine in front of it. Moy has plans to grow Rosemead's collection to upward of 6,000 bottles. The bar inside the Janevca lounge. Back at Janevca, chef Alridge's Filipino and Jamaican roots shape the menu and a stainless steel Argentine-style grill burning maple, alder, and applewood is the genesis of most dishes. When I head down to dinner, the fully booked restaurant buzzes while wine director Jacques Lacoste pours me a smooth glass of beaujolais and a gas fireplace 'crackles' nearby. The Hokkaido scallop crudo with calamansi citrus and pops of smoky pyanggang sauce was exceptional, while the signature half-chicken with siu haau sauce and Janevca crisp is one of chef Alridge's personal favorites. For dessert, the Peach Melba is a sweet storytelling triumph, because not only does pastry chef Brian Bradley encase it in a thin layer of marzipan to look just like a peach, complete with leaves and a chocolate-formed pit, he serves it on historic dinnerware purchased from The Savoy, where Peach Melba was invented in the late-1800s. Are they, perhaps, the same plates the first Peach Melbas were eaten off of? The staff cannot confirm nor deny, but as I eat my dessert, I think yes. Rosemead has a two-story Wellness Centre complete with a state-of-the-art gym and Peloton bikes. At Salt & Ivy spa, decorated with Himalayan salt walls and antique mirrors, I opt for an Oceanic Renewal face and body treatment using local Seaflora products. My therapist buffs and moisturizes my tired skin with nutrient-rich seaweed body polish and a firming mask before laying shiver-inducing strands of detoxifying fresh seaweed across my back. It's all harvested in nearby Sooke, known for its high diversity of 500+ seaweed varieties. Rosemead has future plans to offer seaweed-foraging experiences there in its pristine intertidal zone with Seaflora. Off-property, a 10-minute drive away, check into Havn, a WWII-era barge converted into a wellness spa docked in Victoria's Inner Harbour. After checking in, I sip a superfood-based Majik Algae Aloe elixir, turn completely numb from a four-minute cold plunge, then slather myself with a ladle full of exfoliating salt to warm up. For the next three hours I rinse, sauna, hot tub, lounge, and repeat before walking to dinner at Rabbit Rabbit wine bar, where executive chef Billy Nguyen (a good friend of Janevca's chef Alridge) plates excellent French-Asian fare in a room full of vibes and vinyl. If you go, ask for a booth with a Champagne button. Given its more-than-100-year pedigree, the manor house itself is a heritage-designated property, so those suites are only accessible by stairs, but the Mayfair Room in the Grove Collection is ADA-compliant. As for sustainability, the hotel's park-like setting with 100-year-old heritage trees were what first attracted Moy to the land, so it was key to hold on to as many as possible during renovations and the condo development. To that end, Garry Oak meadows were preserved, an on-site nursery was created to transplant trees, and felled heritage trees were repurposed for Janevca's dining room tables, wooden accents in the spa, and more. Reclaimed bricks from the manor's previous retaining walls show up in the driveways and yet more brick was repurposed from a building in Victoria. To get to Rosemead from Vancouver, I recommend the fastest and most scenic route, a 35-minute Helijet flight direct from Vancouver Harbour to Victoria Harbour. It flies you over green Gulf Islands before a stunning, get-your-camera-ready coastal landing near downtown Victoria, from which a car or Uber whisks you to Rosemead in 15 minutes. Alternatively, guests can fly directly into Victoria International Airport or take BC Ferries from Tsawwassen (Vancouver) to Swartz Bay (Victoria). Located in the quiet Saxe Point neighborhood, a stay at Rosemead lends itself to nature walks, not unlike a British country estate. I stroll five minutes to reach the craggy cliffs of Macaulay Point Park where rare maritime meadows grow, found only in a few coastal habitats along southeastern Vancouver Island. Dense-flowered lupin and purple sanicle pop up amongst long-abandoned gun battlements, and I breathe in the salty Salish Sea air as small fishing boats chug by. Back in my room later, I play into my historic fairytale by writing a note longhand on light pink RH-embossed stationery before propping myself up on pillows in my reading nook. Sure, I'm scrolling on my phone, but it feels like I'm scrolling while time-traveling and I'm very into that. Rosemead House will open fully to guests in July 2025, and bookings are now open online. Nightly rates start at $515 for the Manor Collection and $440 for the Grove Collection. The hotel is not yet part of any loyalty or credit card reward programs. Every T+L hotel review is written by an editor or reporter who has stayed at the property, and each hotel selected aligns with our core values.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The ‘Holy Grail of Shipwrecks' Is Still Underwater. So Is Its $17 Billion Fortune.
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: Considered the world's richest shipwreck, the San Jose was found off the coast of Colombia in 2015. New research into the gold coins now scattered on the ocean floor offered insights into the decorative pieces minted in Lima. Valued at a modern-day $17 billion, the San Jose's bounty is still untouched. Exploration of the San Jose shipwreck and the precious metal coins it scattered about 1,970 feet below the ocean's surface off the coast of Colombia confirmed it really was the richest shipwreck in the world. Considered the Holy Grail of all shipwrecks, the Spanish galleon San Jose blew up and sank in 1708 at the hands of British cannons, and it took with it what experts have estimated to be $17 billion in modern-day wealth, largely in the form of coins from 10 years of taxes saved up from the Americas. The shipwreck was first located in 2015. A new study published in the journal Antiquity showed how using remotely operated vehicles allowed researchers to get close to the underwater coins and confirm that the wreck found in 2015—which launched a custody battle between Colombia and Spain—really is the long-sought San Jose with an untold number of coins still on the seafloor. 'Among the key finds are hand-struck, irregularly shaped coins—known as cobs in English and macuquinas in Spanish—that served as the primary currency in the Americas for more than two centuries,' the study's lead author, Daniela Vargas Ariza, wrote about the coins often cut from gold or silver ingots. Ariza is a maritime archaeologist at Colombia's Almirante Padilla Naval Cadet School in Cartagena and the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History in Bogota. The exact number of coins visible is difficult to determine due to the nature of the underwater site, but the cobs identified in high-resolution photos taken by the ROV show they have an average diameter of 1.3 inches and weigh 27 grams. At an estimated 200 tons of gold, silver, and uncut gemstones, that's a lot of wealth in the water. The photographs did help add some detail to what's known about the shipwreck's treasure. One side of the coins featured a Jerusalem Cross—a large cross with four smaller crosses—along with a shield featuring a castle and lions within a dotted border. On the flip side, the central design features the Pillars of Hercules above waves of the sea. The researchers said the design of the waves offers an identifying element for coins coming from the Lima Mint. Coins also feature marks of an assayer—an expert who tests metal purity—hammered on the edges. The researchers believe the evidence gleaned from the cobs help substantiate the long-held hypothesis that this wreck truly is the San Jose. 'This case study highlights the value of coins as key chronological markers in the identification of shipwrecks, particularly those from the Tierra Firme Fleet,' Ariza wrote. The sinking of the ship at this site must have occurred after 1707, the year the coins were minted. This, along with the presence of Chinese porcelain from the Kangzi period of 1662-1722 A.D. and the inscriptions on the cannon dating to 1665, suggest the ship sank in the early 18th century. The features on the coins also helped determine the route taken by the sunken vessel, including how the cobs were likely sourced from Peruvian mines (minting of gold coins began at the Lima Mint in 1696). There's also historical context important in identifying the wreck. In 1706, the Viceroy Marques de Castelldosrius arrived in Peru to reactivate the Portobello fair and send accumulated taxes of a decade to the Iberian Peninsula. In late 1707, Peruvian merchants and officials traveled to Puerto Perico on the Pacific coast of Panama, according to the study. There, they met the Tierra Firme Fleet, commanded by the galleon San Jose, which held the monopoly on transporting royal treasures between South America and the Iberian Peninsula. After the Portobello fair, the San Jose departed for Cartagena carrying goods and metals, including the cobs. 'The San Jose Galleon,' the authors wrote, 'is the only ship that matches these characteristics.' Cobs were the primary way the Spanish transported large volumes of wealth from the Americas to Europe, so these coin hoards likely formed part of the royal treasure dispatched from Peru by Castelldosrius. But when the fleet of 18 ships left Cartagena bound for Spain on June 8, 1708, it was attacked by five British warships during the War of the Spanish Succession. The cannon battle resulted in the exploding of San Jose's gunpowder stores, sinking the 150-foot-long ship. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
