Released from his contract with Camp Verde High School after 24 years, newly appointed Valley Academy for Career and Technology Education Superintendent Bob Weir said that he always intended to close out his career with VACTE.
“It’s been a goal of mine for a long time,” Weir said of heading VACTE, which allowed his own daughter to become a certified nursing assistant by the time she left high school.
The move comes a few years early. Weir had assumed that Lisa Aragon — who accepted an interim contract as VACTE superintendent in March and announced her departure in June — would last longer in her position, allowing him to finish out his planned tenure as CVHS principal.
When the opportunity arose to become VACTE superintendent, however, both Weir and Camp Verde Unified School District Superintendent Dennis Goodwin decided to take the bull by the horns. Knowing he would be losing a principal in the process, Goodwin nonetheless recommended Weir for the position.
“When Aragon left, I went to the [VACTE Governing Board] president and said, ‘You know what? We need the best person possible in here,’” Goodwin said, adding that while endorsing Weir caused a minor upheaval in his own district it is ultimately for the best of local high school students.
“In the long run, I think it’s going to benefit everyone,” Goodwin said.
Weir said he was career and technology education director at CVHS for 12 years.
“I’ve been around since VACTE was founded …. Right now, CVHS has nine programs. Without VACTE, they could afford maybe three.”
Weir said one of his first priorities is to improve VACTE’s marketing — making people aware of what it is and what it provides to area students. According to Weir, VACTE remains in many ways an untapped resource because prior administrations did not prioritize getting the word out.
“It wasn’t marketed,” Weir said. “People think it’s a charter school.”
The state’s best joint technology education districts, he added, are allowing students opportunities that were unheard of decades ago. Managed successfully, Weir said that VACTE could increase the number of students departing high school with marketable certificates in a variety of career and technology industries. Weir is considering expanding VACTE’s offerings to include cosmetology, medical recording and medical assistant programs.
Weir said he intends to expand and centralize what VACTE already offers, including the fire science and nursing programs.
“We’re taking over fire science here. It’s no longer a Camp Verde program,” Weir said, adding that centralizing the program to VACTE’s headquarters in Cottonwood allows for increased funding from the state, transferring needed resources directly to students — who, in turn, funnel funds back to VACTE and qualified employees to the greater community, nurturing a relationship that contributes to the local economy in a big way.
“This is funding the workforce,” Weir said, explaining that while VACTE costs taxpayers little and provides much, if students do not attend its programs, the organization withers. “The kids fund us …. If we don’t have kids, we don’t open our doors.”
Weir pledged to pursue increased support from Yavapai College.
“With people pushing Yavapai College to provide more career and technology programs, it’s become a very positive environment,” Weir said, adding that if Yavapai College can help districts “build a career and technology program here like they have in Prescott” local high schools would benefit hugely.
Weir is committed to “open and honest communication” with local districts. In the next few weeks, he will examine previous years’ budgets and get a greater handle on issues that have prevented full transparency.
“Anywhere you go, you clean up problems,” Weir said. “We’re going to open the books up.”
