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NEWPORT — In the driver’s seat of a semi-truck in Newport High School’s overflow lot sat Carson Hanni, a student going from item to item on a pre-trip inspection checklist.
“Make sure to keep your foot on that brake,” Michael Gaherin, an instructor at the commercial driving school Drive509, reminded him from the passenger doorway.
Hanni is one of nine students in NHS’ new commercial driver’s license course offered through the Newport School District’s career and technical education program.
Drive509 drove a semi-truck to Newport High School April 14 so Hanni and his course mates could learn the pre-trip inspection checklist. Also on April 14, NHS worked to connect a commercial driving simulator on loan from Northeast Washington Educational Service District 101 to Drive509.
These expansions to the CDL course coincided with NSD’s receiving a $46,000 grant from LaunchNW, an Innovia Foundation initiative that supports children and families across the region. Through a partnership between NSD, Drive509 and the Pend Oreille Public Utility District, the grant will let high school students go on to posthigh school training, as well as facilitate events assisting with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and other scholarship applications.
“The grants that are awarded vary in amount and purpose,” LaunchNW executive director Ben Small said in a press release. “But ultimately, they support the needs of rural communities in advancing the post-high school pursuits of their students.”
During the trimesters, the CDL students gain hours as they work through the curriculum and pretrip instruction.
When they graduate, “the grant will pay for remaining costs and transportation to Drive509 in the Spokane Valley where the students will complete their program, hopefully earning their CDL,” CTE director Saraya Pierce wrote in an email. LaunchNW awarded $920,000 in grants to recipients in rural communities across Eastern Washington, including other school districts like Reardan, Lind-Ritzville, Riverside and Northport.
“These grants are an invitation and call to action for our communities,” Shelly O’Quinn said in the LaunchNW press release. She is the CEO of Innovia Foundation, a nonprofit. “They encourage everyone to come alongside our young people in charting their post-high school pathway.”
