“Why do I need to learn Excel?” “When am I ever going to use fractions?” “What does algebra have to do with real life?”

Every teacher has heard some version of that question from a student. 

Here’s one answer, straight from the floor at Daher, where they build airplanes right here in our community: it’s not just the engineers who live in spreadsheets. It’s the people in quality control, the stock room, the inspection team. At every stage of production, every single part is documented and Excel will help you excel. 

“Future-You will be very grateful you paid attention in class,” a teacher can say after having attended Industry Tours and Community Connections, a PAFE grant, designed to surface these kinds of insights.

Every quarter for one day, school is closed to students, but open for teachers. The kids get a day off so the educators can keep learning.

The professional development varies each quarter, and this month, we accompanied them on an Industry Tour facilitated by grantee and SHS principal Jacki Crossingham. It’s a field trip to major local employers where they see the workplace in action, connect with managers, CEOs, and hiring directors, and bring what they learned back to the classroom, impacting 1000 students.

The pressure is on for students in high school to pick a field they are interested in. Yet, when you don’t know what you don’t know, it’s hard to choose a career path unless it practically falls in front of you. This grant lets those “accidents” happen. Think about it: How different might your path have been if you knew about specific jobs available right in your own community?

The tour took educators to Daher, Idaho Forest Group’s mill in LaClede, Litehouse, Kachava, and Bonner General Hospital, where they toured operations and had time to ask questions about the various positions available and the skills required to fill them.

And here’s the thing: as valuable as the tours themselves are, the gold is in the conversations in the cracks.

At Daher, a manager asked teacher Melanie Koenig what she taught as they walked between facilities. She said she teaches reading intervention, and he shared that he has dyslexia, like some of her students. They talked. She invited him to come speak to her class. He said, “Why don’t you just bring them here? They can learn, see for themselves there are many options for them.”

Moments like that happened throughout the day.

The reach of this program extends well beyond the teachers on the tour. Every student they interact with benefits from more current, real-world information about career opportunities and what it takes to succeed after high school. Teachers also leave better equipped to connect businesses for guest speakers, internships, and job shadows, creating real ties between the classroom and the community.

It’s no surprise this grant received the Glass Slipper Award for innovation. It aligns with both LPOSD’s strategic plan to strengthen business-community connections and PAFE’s own priorities, which is exactly the kind of alignment that makes a program like this sustainable.

Our teacher grants support Lake Pend Oreille School District educators to bring creative and innovative programs to the classroom. Because they are teacher-led ideas and not mandated by external parties, they have a far greater impact on students. These grants fill gaps in funding with innovative programs to amplify our impact. Your support is crucial in sustaining and expanding these initiatives. If you’d like to be a part of this, you can donate here.