The Crossing alternative school is looking to partner with some local businesses to provide job training opportunities for its students.
During the school’s fund-raising banquet last week in Knox, CEO Rob Staley said The Crossing is hoping to set up partnerships to give students some real-world job experience. “This is what our greatest need is in this area, when it comes to job training,” he said, “is an opportunity for somebody to open their business and say, ‘I’m open to taking five to eight kids and a job coach to come to my location and work on the floor, work in manufacturing, do something, every single day, under the supervision of a job coach,’ so that our students can live and breathe and be in the environment of a real, working environment.”
The hope is that the best-performing students would then be offered jobs at participating businesses. Staley says the school has successfully used this model in other parts of Indiana.
During last week’s fundraiser, Staley also shared some other ways people can get involved with The Crossing. They include serving on the school’s business advisory board, volunteering in various capacities in the classroom, or donating food.
As for The Crossing’s fund-raising efforts, Staley told potential donors that the school’s Knox location has set a goal of $40,000. He said that while The Crossing gets reimbursement from public school systems, not all students are sponsored by public schools.
Much of the donated money also covers the cost of the school’s faith-based programs. “We have to separate our school dollars that come from the public school and the faith-based education that we provide,” Staley said. “They have to be in two separate buckets. They can’t be mixed together. Obviously, we have state tax dollars that are coming in. We have to separate church and state. So the money that we raise tonight, a big portion of that is going to go into our family time and our teachers’ salaries and benefits, just for the faith-based component.”
Staley adds that donations also benefit the school’s job training efforts, which notably include a student-run furniture business. Not only do students make the furniture, but they’re also responsible for selling it and covering expenses. “They know they have to sell at least $40,000 or we have to go to the community and apply for grants and get donations to make sure that we’re able to do so,” Staley said.
The Crossing aims to provide educational opportunities to students recovering from drug addiction or criminal histories, as well as those who simply struggled in traditional public schools.
