LINCOLN COUNTY High School (LCHS) partnered with JCF Housements through Work-Based Learning (WBL), to help provide students with manufacturing, technical, intellectual, and social skills needed in the Fayetteville community.
JCF Housements worked with LCHS to hire students as young as 16, through the school’s WBL course which is offered to juniors and seniors. The partnership began with talks between former JCF human resource manager, Robert Kinchen, LCHS Career and Technical Education (CTE) director, Susan Welch, and LCHS WBL coordinator, Sarah Grace Byrd. In fall 2021, Welch met with JCF Housements about making these working arrangements, placing two LCHS students in JCF’s facility in January.
Byrd said the students are paid and get school credit for their work.
“JCF really grabbed onto the idea of our students coming [into] their workplace and then truly training them how they need to be trained to do the jobs that they need specifically in their facility,” Byrd said.
Byrd said she thinks LCHS’s partnership with JCF will continue and desires to double the number of students who work with JCF, to four.
“Work-Based Learning is a proactive approach to bridging the gap between high school and high-demand, high-skill careers in Tennessee,” the Tennessee Department of Education said, according to a LCHS newsletter. “Students build on classroom-based instruction, to develop employability skills that prepare them for success in postsecondary education and future careers.”
FAYETTEVILLE HIGH SCHOOL PRESENTS ITS RETIRING BAND DIRECTOR WITH A GOAT.
Fayetteville High School’s (FHS) band director, Don Adams, retired last in May, after about 35 years of teaching, with the last six of those years occurring at FHS.
During the FHS and Fayetteville Middle School Band Concert on April 14, the school presented Adams with a goat, as a farewell gift, for his small farm at home. The goat also served as a reference to the “greatest of all time” — G.O.A.T. With some insistence from the band kids, Adams decided to name the goat, Feta, the name of a kind of Greek cheese. After the concert, the school held a retirement reception in Adams’ honor.
When reflecting on his time at the school, Adams said any performances he had with the kids was his favorite moment. .
“Playing music is just wonderful,” Adams said. “And playing music with the kids is just fabulous ‘cause playing an instrument and reading music is difficult, and the kids have to work hard to be able to do it, and it’s fun to let them show off when they’ve done something, when they’ve accomplished something.”
Adams earned a Master of Music degree after graduating from Indiana University in Bloomington. He also received a Bachelor of Science degree in instrumental music education, from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee. Adams served in various positions in band programs at Springfield High and Springfield Middle Schools in Springfield, Tennessee; Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas; University of Alabama in Huntsville; Lincoln County Central Junior High School in Fayetteville; and more.
Now that he is retired, Adams plans to devote more time to his farm. He tends to goats and hogs, along with an orchard and large garden where he raises asparagus. He sells food to local farmers markets.
“I have a lot less energy than I used to,” Adams said. “And so it’s time for the next generation to take over.” GN
