Elected officials receive update on high school academies

CENTER LINE — Once a year, the Center Line City Council and the Center Line Public Schools Board of Education hold a joint meeting.

This year’s meeting was held Jan. 26 at the district’s administration building, and it gave district Superintendent Joseph Haynes the opportunity to provide an update about the Center Line High School Academy.

The educational academy officially opened August 2016 and is approaching its 10-year anniversary. The high school has two different academies: the Academy of Industry, Technology and Innovation that focuses on innovative and design thinking, and the Academy of Health and Human Services that consists of careers that help, heal and serve.

There are eight pathways. Students in the HHS academy are geared toward careers that include health and wellness; first responders; law and justice; and public service. The ITI program pathways include engineering technology; innovative art and design; digital design and communication; and business, commerce and entrepreneurship.

“When the ninth graders get to the high school, they spend freshman year deciding what their future path is going to be. It’s tough sometimes for freshman to figure out what they want to do,” Haynes said. “At the end of their freshman year, they have to decide on which academy they are going to go into. Not only do you decide on which academy you’re going to go into, you have to decide a pathway.”

There are four pathways for each academy. About 50% of the students are in one academy and 50% in the other. According to Hayes, the high school’s graduation rate is 98.5%, and the attendance rate is 91%.

“We try to give all our kids, while they’re in high school, at least one college credit or an industry-recognized certification,” Haynes said. “Industry-recognized certification are the certifications that the professionals out there in the world want their employees to get.”

  Each program includes a list of required pathway classes for the students. For instance, the business, commerce and entrepreneurship program includes marketing, accounting and business management courses with various elective options, including sports and entertainment marketing, hospitality and culinary arts. With each pathway, articulation credits are offered. Educators work with many industry partners.

Students in the health and wellness program enroll in psychology and interpersonal communications, medical careers and systems, nutrition and food science classes and more. Some classes are offered through the Southwest Macomb Technical Education Consortium. SMTEC is a partnership between the Center Line, Fitzgerald, Van Dyke and Warren Woods school districts that offers career and technical education classes for high school sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Educators provide college tours, industry tours, college expos and job shadows for the high school students. According to the district’s 2024-2025 academy prospectus, 77% of the seniors earned college credit, 66% of them earned industry certification and 45% graduated with both a credential/certification and college credit.

“We start off very general in ninth grade, we work our way up to hopefully they knew what they want to do when they leave us,” Haynes said. “Some of those are jobs they can have right out of high school. Some of them have to do an apprenticeship or an internship. College is also an option.”

As the academies progressed, educators found that they needed to start talking to students about careers long before ninth grade. District officials took each of the eight academy high school pathways and partnered them with a grade at Wolfe Middle School and the district’s three elementary schools: Crothers, Roose and Peck.

As one example, the kindergarten grade partners with the innovative art and design pathway in the ITI Academy. The second graders study first responders. As another example, the seventh graders focus on different careers and skills connected to the law and justice pathway.

Haynes thinks some of the pathways will have to change in the future to meet future needs in Macomb County, including adding more logistics and engineering options.

“Thank you very much for your presentation,” Center Line Mayor Bob Binson said. “I’m very proud of the academy model in Center Line. Everywhere I go, I like to talk about that the most. I love what you guys are doing.”