The Burlington Community School District has been awarded a $10,000 STEM BEST enhancement grant by the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council to support the expansion of Health Sciences programming at Burlington High School.
Beginning with the 2025-26 school year, BHS will begin offering a Health Care Assistant Certification class in addition to the Certified Nursing Assistant program already in place.
“We are excited to help support your engagement with Iowa’s growing community of trail-blazing schools and districts connecting learning with the world of work that awaits all of our youth,” Justin Lewis, bureau chief of the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council Division of Innovation, said.
The STEM BEST funds will be used to purchase equipment to provide students with the tools and equipment they will encounter in a clinical setting.
“The extension of the STEM BEST grant for Burlington High School provides the opportunity to expand our Health Sciences program through increasing opportunities and equipment in order to best prepare students for their postsecondary plans,” BHS Principal Nathan Marting said. “BHS continues to lead schools in providing multiple career pathways and coursework while ensuring our graduates are ready for whatever career choice they pursue. Our continued focus in providing all students, regardless of background, the opportunity to start their postsecondary coursework while in high school is enhanced through this grant.”
The enhancement grant is an extension of a $40,000 STEM BEST grant the district was awarded in 2022 to improve curriculum development within the Health Sciences pathway, including the CNA course, which BHS first began offering on site in 2021. Since then, BHS has seen a nearly 400% increase in the number of students taking Health Sciences classes.
“The success of that grant was that the school district was able to initiate the offering of the health sciences curriculum to our students of the CNA courses,” BCSD Grant Coordinator Sibyl McIntire said. “Those courses were so popular and they exposed our students to the health care field, getting them jobs immediately and providing our partners in the community with workers.”
With the addition of the HCA certification classes next year, students will be able to accrue 11.5 college credits in the health occupations field before graduating high school.
“We’re providing students ways to, in high school, gain access to college credits which in turn hopefully helps them see themselves as college ready,” McIntire said. “Our district is striving to help high school students envision success, showing them that they can attain a short-term certificate and achieve it.”
