Wondering what it looks like for an advisory board to REALLY engage with an academy? Come hear about how the advisory board at Milwaukee-Washington High School of IT got there. In the last two years, the board has hosted an interactive IT and engineering career fair, delivered workshops and recruited eight new members. Presenters: Joe Kmoch and Sheryl Knox, Milwaukee-Washington High School of IT and Dorothy Valentine, Harley-Davidson

2. Advisory Boards that Work:
Success Stories at Milwaukee-
Washington HS of IT
Joe Kmoch joe@jkmoch.com
Sheryl Knox she4kn@aol.com
Dorothy Valentine
dorothy.valentine@yahoo.com
Site:
http://whsoit-advboard.pbworks.com

3. #nafnext
Washington High School
Information Technology
Washington High School AOIT Academy
Enrollment 716:
• African American: 92%
• White: 3.5%
• Asian: 3.5%
• Hispanic/Latino: 1%
• Free/Reduced Lunch:
70
Female: 46.9%
Male: 53.1%
Female: 78%
Male: 22%
Attendance 75.5% 84.03%
Suspension Rate 17.4%
MAP Scores Math: 209.3→ 213.2
Reading: 204.1→207.8
Fall to Spring

4. #nafnext

5. #nafnext
iFair IT and Engineering Career Fair
with a Twist
• The story
• Video of the first iFair
• <http://ifair.pbworks.com>

6. #nafnext
iFair IT and Engineering Career Fair
with a Twist
• Description and highlights of each iFair (10 m)
 Finding exhibitors and pre-fair information
 Finding schools and pre-fair preparation including
lesson plan and handouts
• Wanted teachers to infuse this in class
 We created a 3 segment lesson plan
 pre, during the event and post activities

7. #nafnext
iFair IT and Engineering Career Fair
with a Twist <http://ifair.pbworks.com>
 At the fair – for students, for exhibitors

8. #nafnext
iFair IT and Engineering Career Fair
with a Twist <http://ifair.pbworks.com>
 At the fair – for students, for exhibitors

9. #nafnext
iFair IT and Engineering Career Fair
with a Twist <http://ifair.pbworks.com>
 At the fair – for students, for exhibitors

10. #nafnext
iFair IT and Engineering Career Fair
with a Twist
 After the fair – for students, for exhibitors, for
teachers

11. #nafnext

12. #nafnext
WHS Library
AGENDA
Employability Skills Poster
Welcome and Purpose ……………………………………….………………Dorothy Valentine
Career & Technical Education ……………………….………....…Eric Radomski/Terri Salzer
Business Requirements ……………………………….….…………..………...Edna Abernathy
Group Session Expectations……………………………………………..……Dorothy Valentine
Group Questions:
- How does PBIS work in the classroom?
- How would you suggest using this employability skill in your classroom?
- What is one way to reward the students for practicing these skills?
Group Report-Outs
WHS Graduates:
How WHS played a role in their success ……………………………………Desiree Cocroft
Tony Braddock
Retired Teacher Insights ……………………………………………………….…….Freda Bell
Acknowledgements
Next Steps
How we introduced
this to the staff:

13. Your turn!
Divide into groups so that there are no more
than 4-5 in a group.
Choose one of the 6 Employability skills areas
Generate ideas to include those in your
classroom, noting them on a large poster
sheet
Share out ideas to the larger group

14. Notes from Sharing Segment:

15. Other AB Activities
Student Leadership Workshop
Planned Training Module Schedule
January: Orientation
Conduct Ethics Eval, Dress for Success
February: Integrity and Ethics
March: Communication Skills
…and Listening & Feedback
April: Interpersonal Skills
May: Decision-Making/Problem-Solving Skills
Student application and teacher sign-off

16. Other AB Activities
Mock Interview Sessions
• At least two possibly three
• Prep workshops for students
• Goal is to have a group of students do
all three mock interviews
• Evaluate Progress

17. Other AB Activities
Coordination between this board and the
school’s AOHT Board
Also dealing with the Director position for
each academy (we have two NAF plus
PLTW)

18. Other AB Activities
AB Membership – enlarging
and maintaining
Note the many different ways of adding to and
maintaining a board
• Software engineer who changed jobs and asked his
new small company to continue
• Added social gaming company CEO through contact
via a community college IT program advisory board
• Added a retired engineer via personal contact with
previous school administrator

19. Other AB Activities
AB Membership – enlarging
and maintaining
• Added Student Development Director via contacts
with local STEM organization (also an Alum from
2002)
• Added an Education Outreach specialist via other
contacts at Marquette University
• Added large health care provider Human Resources
Development person through personal contact
• Added IT Education Director because of interest in
student internships

20. Other AB Activities
AB Membership – enlarging
and maintaining
• Maintenance
• Replaced community college member with an
individual in their STEM outreach department
• Replaced exec director of organization of
STEM-interested businesses with new exec
director
• Replaced engineer at large firm with an IT
specialist

21. Other AB Activities
AB Membership – enlarging
and maintaining
• The big coup in the last few weeks:
• Woman who is the CIO Emeritus of a large
Milwaukee corporation
• She is also director if IT-United, a large group
of CIOs in Milwaukee who want to volunteer
and increase the number of kids interested in
IT.

22. #nafnext
Advisory Board

23. WHSoIT AOIT AB Meeting

24. Other AB Activities
Revised NAF bylaws template
reflecting consensus strategy we use

25. WHSoIT ByLaws
Article VII – Meetings; Section 2: Voting
“Votes shall be called on procedural issues
specifically defined in these By-Laws. A
consensus model shall be used on all
other issues and proposals.”

26. WHSoIT ByLaws
Article VII – Meetings; Section 4:
Consensus Decision Making
“A consensus model shall be used for
decision making on issues considered by
the Advisory Board and its Committees.”
… “The Advisory Board shall work toward
achieving compromise in these situations.
If compromise cannot be reached, the
Advisory Board Chairperson may call for a
majority vote as a last resort.

27. Thank you for listening and
participating
Presentation is available on the NAF NEXT
website and also on
http://whsoit-advboard.pbworks.com