Bryan ISD and Blinn College have worked together for many years to bring college credit to high school students. In the spring, Bryan High and Blinn will begin a partnership that offers more of these courses to students and allows Blinn to use classrooms on Bryan High’s campus.
“We are partnering with Blinn to have easier access to dual credit courses for Bryan ISD students,” principal Lane Buban said. “Blinn will be on our campus, have office space on our campus, and have classrooms that are located on our campus. Beyond that, part of the partnership involves Blinn utilizing our shop space. With that comes the availability of new machinery, new equipment, and new tools not only for them, but for us.”
As Blinn has grown over the years, they have been seeking ways to obtain classroom and lab space for their licensing and technical classes without building additional rooms on their campus. Through this partnership, Blinn gains access to the lab space that they need and the extra benefits that come with partnering with Bryan High.
“We will have full use of the registration desk on the Blue Campus and four offices directly off of it, which our Workforce Education Director, Healthcare Programs Manager, and Student Success Program Manager will all be located at,” Blinn’s Dean of Workforce Education Megan Costanza said. “This will allow us to serve both Bryan ISD and open enrollment students on site at the Blue Campus. Within Hammond Oliver, we will bring our supplies and equipment to outfit three labs into: Certified Nurse Aide (C.N.A.), Phlebotomy labs, and Pharmacy Technician labs. Hammond Oliver already has a C.N.A. lab, but we will contribute additional equipment and supplies.”
With both institutions benefiting from the new learning space and equipment, the students enrolled in these classes will have more access to resources than prior to the partnership.
“Our students will have easier access to Blinn and to post-secondary education,” Buban said. “More certification and licensing classes will be offered to a wider range of our kids. More students will be impacted by this partnership because it goes beyond the scope of the classroom – it goes into technical fields and to providing school-to-work type relationships where they can earn a license and go straight into the workforce.”
This partnership also allows for a variety of classes to be introduced, since singularly maintaining and staffing these classes is difficult for both campuses. By working together, Bryan High and Blinn are able to expand student education while being able to share the costs that come with these courses.
“There are more possibilities as far as classes go, but to be able to teach those courses you have to have teachers,” Buban said. “It is tough to hire and spend money for those teachers. However, with this partnership, Blinn can step in and put their professors in these classrooms and offer these different classes.”
Through working together, both campuses are able to fulfill their missions and provide students necessary skills after completing their education.
“We already have a shared mission to serve local students, and now we are partnering to share facilities, faculty, and resources towards that mission,” Costanza said. “I expect we will expand in sharing most workforce or technical labs and build new ones together to help train Bryan ISD students and the community to work in high-skill and high-demand local jobs.”
