The Pima & Santa Cruz Tech Prep Consortium promotes learning for employment in a technological society. The Consortium serves as a catalyst in this process, developing options and opportunities from which the educational institutions and employment community draw.

To this end the Consortium

• Directs the plan for implementation of Tech Prep into Pima & Santa Cruz Counties’ schools and colleges.
• Facilitates a seamless educational/work training system.
• Provides direction and clarity to the reinvention of the educational system.
• Provides the resources for students to move from school to work.
• Produces high school and community college graduates who can think, work, communicate, solve problems, and make ethical decisions.
• Serves as a policy development body which assures commitment by the employment community to employ the results of the program.
• Provides a system which empowers students to become contributing members of society.
• Provides the foundations for sustainable economic development.
• Serves the diversified population of Pima & Santa Cruz Counties.
• Promotes and provides a broad-based professional development program.
• Promotes the program throughout Pima & Santa Cruz Counties across all sectors, educational and community.
• Promotes learning through a variety of methodologies and systems.

The Pima & Santa Cruz Tech Prep Consortium envisions the creation of a highly trained, well educated workforce, which contributes to the economic development of Pima & Santa Cruz Counties, by building business/education strategies that work for the Twenty-First Century.

PIMA AND SANTA CRUZ TECH PREP CONSORTIUM
POLICY STATEMENT AND LEADERSHIP SYSTEM

The Pima and Santa Cruz Tech Prep Consortium (P/SCTPC) adopts the following Policy Statement and Leadership System, effective September 25, 2002.

Policy: P/SCTPC supports and inclusive model of collaboration involving education, business, community, and government participation.

Service Area: The Consortium encompasses the geographical region of Pima and Santa Cruz Counties (also identified as the Pima Community College District) plus the Mammoth/San Manuel Unified School District, including San Manuel High School, located in Pinal County.

Membership and Participating Partners:

• All public secondary school sites, grades 7-12, and all public post-secondary sites within the service area that provide a coherent sequence of instruction, Levels 1-4, as defined by the Arizona Department of Education.
• Representatives of business, industry, and community organizations as members of the Leadership Council and/or participants in Partnership Councils.
• Government and community-based organizations as Partnership participants.
• Other Educational entities that participate in Consortium services on a space available and cost recovery basis.

Leadership System: P/SCTPC is supported by a Leadership System that provides the Consortium’s organizational structure for information sharing, goal setting, and decision-making. The Leadership System consists of:

• Executive Board
• Leadership Council
• Business and Industry Partnership Councils
• Site Coordinators
• Occupational Program Facilitators

Method of Operation: The P/SCTPC Leadership System operates under the principle of “preferred consensus”. Preferred consensus involves a blend of input from all participants, with compromise as necessary, to develop a position that everyone in the group can support. If such deliberation does not result in unanimous support of a matter under consideration, decisions will be made through the voting process described below for each component of the Leadership System.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Executive Board – provides direction, guidance, and decisions on behalf of the Consortium, consistent with the goals, objectives, and key activities, as approved by the Leadership Council and incorporated in the annual ADE grant submission. The Executive Board will meet monthly and report on its activities and exercise of decision-making authority at each meeting of the Leadership Council.
  
  • The Executive Board consists of ten (10) voting members with a Chair selected by the Board for a term of two years. The Executive Board Chair also chairs the Leadership Council.
    
  • Voting members include: PCSO (1), CED (1), PCC (2), large school districts (1), small school districts (1), Santa Cruz County (1), U of A (1), community agencies (1), and business representatives (1).
    
  • Tech Prep staff are non-voting members of the Executive Board.
    
  • Decisions by the Executive Board are made by preferred consensus. In the absence of such consensus, decisions require six (6) affirmative votes. Voting may take place at Executive Board meetings and/or by polling voting members.
    
  • The Executive Board may form Issues Task Forces to address specific matters of importance to the Consortium. Each Task Force is chaired by a member of the Consortium appointed by the Executive Board and may include Consortium participants and others with special expertise in the matter under consideration. Issues Task Forces will report findings and recommendations to the Executive Board for action.

• Leadership Council – provides planning input and guidance to the Executive Board on developing goals, objectives, and key activities. The Leadership Council provides support for Consortium programs and feedback/assessment on progress throughout the year.
  
  • The Leadership Council includes secondary school representatives (1 per member district), post-secondary school representatives (1 per participating campus), business/industry/community representatives (1 per participating organization). Each Leadership Council member has one vote.
    
  • Leadership Council deliberations will strive to reach preferred consensus on matters under consideration. In the absence of such consensus, decisions will be made by simple majority vote of a quorum (50% of total voting members) present at any Leadership Council meeting.
    
  • Regular meetings will be scheduled at least four (4) times per year.

• Business and Industry Partnership Councils – are designed around Career Pathways and shall focus on curriculum alignment, career development/planning, and work-based learning. Each Business and Industry Partnership Council shall develop an action plan and set a calendar for implementation.
  
  • Membership includes business and industry representatives from the identified career area, high school staff representing applicable occupational and academic areas of study, and school administrators.
    
  • Partnership Councils will select co-chairs representing education and business.

• Site Coordinators – are appointed by each district to oversee the implementation of Tech Prep programs at each site. Each site coordinator will:
  
  • Organize a working committee to include occupational and academic faculty, counselors, and administrators.
    
  • Develop and implement a Site Tech Prep Action Plan.

• Occupational Program Facilitators – are appointed by post-secondary schools to oversee and coordinate the development and operation of specific Tech Prep programs at their campuses.