Sinclair360

New Ponitz Career Technology Center a unique partnership

That enthusiasm mounted in August 2009, when the $36 million facility opened in downtown Dayton with 550 students. “The pride was evident,” said Linnae Clinton, director of career technical and adult education for Dayton Public Schools.

A partnership between Dayton Public Schools and Sinclair Community College, the Ponitz Career Technology Center is designed to give students a jump-start on their college education, while they complete their high school degree. Students earn free college credit while at the center. When they finish their graduation requirements, they are guaranteed a $3,000 scholarship to Sinclair.

Sinclair faculty and Dayton Public Schools educators collaborated to build the curriculum in four career areas: arts and communication, business and information technology (IT), health and education, and industrial and engineering. Students can then earn their associate degrees in these fields at Sinclair. Sinclair professors have been able to help the high school faculty understand which foundational academic skills students most often struggle with when they arrive at Sinclair, Clinton said.

According to Clinton, the college’s involvement shows students that post-secondary degrees are obtainable. “It presents a community college as a very viable option to begin on that postsecondary pathway,” she said.

Clinton describes the Ponitz Career Technology Center’s population as typical urban students; the majority are first-generation college students, and many come from a background of poverty. Eighty percent of the school population qualifies for free lunch. “Often urban students aspire to go to college, [but] often those aspirations are not realistically aligned with their current environment,” Clinton said. “Going to Sinclair is absolutely doable and possible.”

Dayton Public Schools selects students who have the best chance of success at a career prep school. They must have grade-point averages of 2.0 or higher, as well as good discipline and attendance records. All students and their parents go through personal interviews.

Demand was high for the opening year. The freshman class alone had more than 300 applicants for 150 spots. The class was eventually capped at 160.

Architecturally the school was designed as five small schools in one, with designated areas carved out for a ninth-grade academy and each of the career communities. Each community has its own unique identity, with color-coded lockers and uniforms distinguishing the students. “A lot of research tells us that kids who are at risk do much better in this school-within-a-school idea – small community and small school,” said Ron Kindell, a retired Sinclair associate vice president who now acts as a liaison between the college and Dayton Public Schools on the partnership project.

Each career community was chosen based on the workforce needs identified by the Dayton Development Coalition, Kindell said. Along with their technical studies, the students take all of the traditional academic courses in the arts and sciences. “There’s an educational dimension, a workforce-development dimension…and ultimately there’s a dimension of the rebuilding of the middle-class family,” he said.

Kindell stated that urban schools that succeed have two common characteristics: a strong community partner and an equally strong building leader. The Ponitz Career Technology Center has that in Sinclair and the center’s principal, Dr. Glenn Faircloth, he said.

Faircloth is a graduate of Dayton Public Schools whose story of rising from teenage homelessness to completing a doctorate inspires the students to overcome their own obstacles. “I have seen him in action, and the kids just idolize him,” Kindell said. “He understands them; having grown up in an urban situation, he understands the unique challenges that many of the students face.”

Kindell expects that Ponitz Career Technology Center students will create success stories of their own. Someday those book bags will be replaced with briefcases. “There is no reason not to think that as time goes by and the school settles in, we are going to see remarkable results in terms of student success, not only in their high school years, but at higher levels, transitioning into post-secondary education.”

Sinclair has a high level of ownership in the project. To have students learning skills that are critical to the future of the Miami Valley makes sense for everyone, Kindell said. “The kids who go to the Ponitz Career Technology Center are our kids,” he said of Sinclair’s commitment. “They are really our kids.”

By Tracy Staley

Tracy Staley is a Dayton-based writer whose work has appeared in the Dayton Business Journal, the Nashville Business Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader, among others.