SIOUX CITY — The Sioux City Career Academy offers middle and high students the opportunity to explore specific career opportunities and build skills to get ahead in the job market.
With more than 35 different career pathways, combining academic knowledge and occupational hands-on learning, the career academy allows students to start building skills for a career earlier than most. Currently, about 1,600 students are participating.
Eric Kilburn, Sioux City Career Academy principal, said students graduate prepared to make post-secondary decisions.
"The Sioux City Career Academy model has been incredibly successful, and we look forward to expanding it even more through enhanced internship opportunities and the new construction trades building," said Kilburn, who was recently selected as the new career academy principal, succeeding Katie Towler, who served as the principal since 2018.
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History of the Academy
The idea of a Sioux City Career Academy started in 2008, right after the hiring of then-district Superintendent Paul Gausman.
Gausman said the district had two career-related programs at the time: a health science and a construction program, but both were not seeing the enrollment the district hoped for. They were also located in the Central Campus Annex with the district administrative offices, an aging facility that was largely unused, Gausman said.
The school board at that time wanted to move the central office, find a new home for the district's kitchen and create a career academy structure.
Lori Thornton, a human relations department employee, clean her computer while moving into the the Sioux City Community Schools' new Education…
The district was able to move the Education Service Center to its current location, 627 4th St., in 2009 and move the district's kitchen and automotive programs to what is now the Harry Hopkins Campus at 3000 Highway 75 in 2010.
A new career academy
The next step was to expand the career academy offerings with the focus being on raising graduation rates. When Gausman arrived in Sioux City, graduation rates were just over 70 percent.
The goal was to match school curriculums to the needs of local employers, according to a 2009 Journal story. Even then, the goal was to have it open to all schools in the tri-state region, not just Sioux City.
"Backers envision students spending a portion of their school day at the academy, which would focus on skills required for various technical fields," the story reported.
The goal was achieved. The growth of the career academy was slow, with just four pathways to begin with. Between 2011 and 2018, new pathways were introduced each December. By 2018 the district had 30 pathways.
"Our whole purpose in this was to still teach students the core subjects of math, science, social studies, language arts, the arts ... but to do so through the lens of a career," Gausman said. "So that when they left the district, they not only had a diploma, but they also had a plan for their future."
Now, the district offers 37 pathways with 175 unique courses.
In the beginning, the career academy courses were spread throughout the three high schools, Western Iowa Tech Community College, the Harry Hopkins Campus and the Ho-Chunk Centre.
In 2017, the district and the City Council approved an agreement that would allow the district to utilize a portion of the Sioux City Museum building for the academy, connected to the Education Service Center.
The new $3 million career academy opened for the 2018-2019 school year, centralizing the courses and creating a college-campus-like atmosphere.
Setting an example statewide
The facility and program were praised by local employers and Gov. Kim Reynolds. It was also the cornerstone of advocating for the continuation of Iowa's penny sales tax fund. The 1 percent sales tax supports school infrastructure and property tax relief.
The fund originated in Sioux City, where local leaders were searching for a way to replace a series of aging schools without raising local property taxes. Woodbury County became the first of 99 counties to approve the local option tax in 1998.
When the tax fund was set to end in 2029, the career academy and the more than $240 million building renovations and construction projects were used as an example of the benefits of such a program.
"The career academy was such a great symbol for the state of how we would use those sales tax dollars wisely to reinvent education to keep kids engaged with school and to prepare them for their future," Gausman said.
The Secure an Advanced Vision for Education Act was signed at the career academy on May 24, 2019, extending the penny sales tax to 2051.
![Gov. Kim Reynolds bill HF 546 signing](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/siouxcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/41/e41d1180-b385-52f7-b534-aa335e65b95b/5ce872cd1d538.image.jpg?resize=150%2C99 150w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/siouxcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/41/e41d1180-b385-52f7-b534-aa335e65b95b/5ce872cd1d538.image.jpg?resize=200%2C132 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/siouxcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/41/e41d1180-b385-52f7-b534-aa335e65b95b/5ce872cd1d538.image.jpg?resize=225%2C148 225w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/siouxcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/41/e41d1180-b385-52f7-b534-aa335e65b95b/5ce872cd1d538.image.jpg?resize=300%2C198 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/siouxcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/41/e41d1180-b385-52f7-b534-aa335e65b95b/5ce872cd1d538.image.jpg?resize=400%2C264 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/siouxcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/41/e41d1180-b385-52f7-b534-aa335e65b95b/5ce872cd1d538.image.jpg?resize=540%2C356 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/siouxcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/41/e41d1180-b385-52f7-b534-aa335e65b95b/5ce872cd1d538.image.jpg?resize=640%2C422 640w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/siouxcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/41/e41d1180-b385-52f7-b534-aa335e65b95b/5ce872cd1d538.image.jpg?resize=750%2C495 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/siouxcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/41/e41d1180-b385-52f7-b534-aa335e65b95b/5ce872cd1d538.image.jpg?resize=990%2C653 990w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/siouxcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/41/e41d1180-b385-52f7-b534-aa335e65b95b/5ce872cd1d538.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C683 1035w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/siouxcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/41/e41d1180-b385-52f7-b534-aa335e65b95b/5ce872cd1d538.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C792 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/siouxcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/41/e41d1180-b385-52f7-b534-aa335e65b95b/5ce872cd1d538.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C879 1333w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/siouxcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/41/e41d1180-b385-52f7-b534-aa335e65b95b/5ce872cd1d538.image.jpg?resize=1476%2C974 1476w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/siouxcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/41/e41d1180-b385-52f7-b534-aa335e65b95b/5ce872cd1d538.image.jpg?resize=1772%2C1169 2008w)
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signs House File 546 on May 24, 2019, at the Sioux City Community School District's Career Academy. The bill provides for the extension of the state's 1 percent sales tax to help fund school infrastructure.
Concerns with implementation
Not everyone was excited about the idea of a new career academy facility.
At the time, current School Board President Dan Greenwell was a parent in the district, unhappy about the cost of having the downtown location which required increased transportation costs and caused high school class sizes to increase.
"The district has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars on an 'ivory tower' location with ballooning operating and administrative costs. Where is the money coming from? By cutting it from the elementary, middle and high schools," Greenwell said in a 2019 letter to the editor.
Now, Greenwell said all of his concerns have been addressed. The class sizes at the middle and high school have been reduced and the district recently reinstated middle school reading, which was eliminated at the time.
"The current board realized that increasing class sizes and the elimination of reading led to lower student achievement results. Fortunately, both of those important issues have been rectified," Greenwell said.
Bringing in students from other schools
Students from 15 different area high schools can take courses at the career academy, including schools from Nebraska and South Dakota, a unique allowance.
Right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the nation, Sioux City Schools, Dakota Valley and South Sioux City Schools were working to allow students to cross state lines to attend courses at the career academy or other career-related programs.
The three district superintendents felt there was no need to have three separate career academy programs teaching the same courses so close together, Gausman said.
Sioux City Junior Kenleigh Bushmann (right) practicing putting out a simulated car fire at the Sergeant Bluff training facility on May 9 as pa…
With help from the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce, the district administrators met with legislators and the governors of all three states, pitching the idea.
Eventually, Reynolds, former Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem signed the tri-state agreement, allowing school dollars to cross the borders in 2020, Gausman said. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021-2022 school year was the first time Dakota Valley and South Sioux students could utilize the program.
Now, the career academy highlights the cross-state and cross-district enrollment, saying it allows students to interact with people they may not have otherwise.
"You wouldn't know which student is from where," Anthony Gaul with the career academy said. "They get experiences that they wouldn't normally get."
Expanding the career academy
The career academy continues to expand, with two major changes being implemented in the coming year.
The district is currently expanding the Harry Hopkins Campus for a new construction trades building.
The 12,000-square-foot building is intended to provide a controlled environment for students to build two houses simultaneously. It is a fairly simple building with two large bays for the houses and a classroom. The main facility is built, with some exterior items and the interior left to complete.
Over two years, students will build a 1,300 to 1,400-square-foot house and learn introductory construction, HVAC, electrical and plumbing trades.
The building is expected to be completed this month.
Sioux City's virtual school, VIBE Academy, has been a stand-alone K-12 school for two years, but due to low enrollment, the school will become part of the career academy. The school board voted to reduce the program to high-school-only in the 2023-24 school year and make it a career academy program. The district also decided to merge the alternative-school students into the virtual school program.
The academy moved into a recently renovated, $1.3 million space during winter break that is situated right beside the career academy.