Broomfield Heights Middle School

The renovations aim to create spaces where students can learn about different potential career interests and make progress on a career pathway, learning specific skills and earning certifications along the way. 

“School design advisory teams have been excited to work with architects and think about how to give more students the opportunity to benefit from CTE education,” BVSD Executive Director o f Bond Planning and Construction Kris Stoppenhagen explained. 

According to Career and Technical Education director and Boulder TEC principal, Dr. Arlie Huffman, middle level CTE courses are designed to provide students with opportunities to explore a variety of areas. At the high school level, CTE experiences will continue to let students explore their areas of interest, while also enabling them to progress much further along their path before graduation, Huffman further explained in a recent update to the Board.

At the middle school level, the goal for CTE programming is to expose students to a variety of career paths so they can explore and find what interests them. Over the course of their middle school tenure, students will participate in CTE programming that rotates six career clusters/twelve industries through all six semesters of middle school. To further support this exploration of interests and build excitement for continuing on specific career pathways, each middle school will have an information center—the iCommons—that shows what CTE looks like at high schools across the district.

Students in Broomfield will be able to explore and gain experience in Infrastructure and Applied Technology pathways. At Broomfield Heights Middle School, the Design Technology lab will be updated with new furniture, equipment, paint, and lighting and will give students broader opportunities to learn the introductory concepts involved in these pathways. In addition, the Art space next door will also be updated and the adjacency is expected to boost collaboration between these programs.  The Infrastructure and Applied Technology pathways at Broomfield High School involve applying high-level math and design competencies to real-world applications. 

“One particularly exciting example of this is the ability for students to be involved in every aspect of designing, planning, and constructing a house on-site at the school,” Career and Technical Education director and Boulder TEC principal, Dr. Arlie Huffman explained to the Board recently.