The highly anticipated (CTE) Health Program will join the eight other Career and Technical Education programs at Milton High School.
At the February school board meeting, Director of Secondary Education Mr. Andrew Rantz proposed the need for it. After a brief discussion, the board approved the program beginning in the fall of 2025.
“It’s such a high priority occupation….Our board of directors recognized how many kids we had going out on co-op out to Geisinger their senior year,” said Mr. Rantz. “We had 54 kids interested in the program in Year One alone.”
The program would be very similar to the school’s other CTE programs. The three-year program is designed to be taken beginning in 10th grade, said Mr. Rantz.
“Now I still have to submit everything to the Department of Education to get the program officially approved. We will have everything submitted by the end of May. I have no reason to believe we’re not going to get approved,” he added.
“We are currently collecting/accepting applications,” Mr. Rantz said. “My hope is that before everybody leaves for the summer, we will know who the teacher is for that program.”
The class would take three out of eight periods, he said. Two periods would be together with the CTE teacher back-to-back, and the third would be a science class depending on the student’s grade level, according to Mr. Rantz.
As sophomores, students would need to take PC Now Chemistry and PC Now Anatomy and Physiology as juniors. As seniors students would need to take PC Now Medical Terminology.
Career and Technical Education Programs in Pennsylvania require that students get 360-minutes of credit hours to be an approved official program. This is why it needs three periods in a day, according to Mr. Rantz.
A benefit of this program is that it gives students a leg-up on their careers. For example, if a student was applying for any job in the health field, they would see it on their transcript which would set them apart, said Mr. Rantz. It also gives students a wide variety of experiences in any part of the health field.
“The health careers program will benefit the students with background knowledge and hands on skills that will better prepare them for their co-op experience their senior year,” said CTE Teacher Lead Ms. Amanda Smith, who coordinates the co-op program.
Mr. Rantz said that it is his hope that by the students’ senior year they will participate in the Gesinger co-op program and get experiences in the area that they are most interested in.
