Auburn Career Center Unveiles Strategic Plan

January 22, 2026 by Allison Wilson

One of the first things Auburn Career Center officials asked Superintendent Joe Glavan to do last year after hiring him was develop a strategic plan for the school.

“We set a very aggressive timeline. We said, ‘We’re going to go ahead and take care of this.’ Five months later, we do have our completed strategic plan,” he told the ACC Board of Education Jan. 13. “While we have done it very quickly, we have done it, also, very purposefully.”

The school consulted with an outside impact group, surveyed stakeholders, gathered feedback from member districts, boards of education, administrators, teachers and counselors, Glavan said.

“What I thought was interesting is, it was all very similar,” he said. “Regardless of the stakeholders, (they were) all very similar in their thoughts.”

Glavan divided the plan into four core pillars for the next three to five years.

“Pillar number one is expanding access and opportunity for our programs. That came through loud and clear in all of our feedback,” he said. “Number two is enhancing instructional quality, our workforce readiness, (making) sure we are investing in our staff, our instructors.”

Pillar number three focuses on aligning organizational structure and strengthening fiscal responsibility regarding taxpayer dollars and four looks to strengthen collaboration, communication and community engagement, Glavan said.

“That was another one that really rang clear — that I need to do and you need to do a better job of communicating with our various members,” he said.

When discussing the first pillar, Glavan floated the idea of regional satellite expansion to provide career and technical education opportunities for ACC’s member districts on their campuses.

“This is not meant as a way to dilute what we’re doing at Auburn,” he said. “It’s that, with our member districts right now, maybe 25% of their juniors and seniors are potentially getting exposed to career/technical education.”

Glavan wants to expand that percentage as much as possible.

Another way to do that would be through the addition of career exploration courses for students in grades seven through 10, he said.

ACC could also expand short-term industry credential offerings and workforce inclusion, the superintendent said.

“Our goal with (workforce inclusion) is, we are looking to create a job-training coordination program which is specifically designed to support students with disabilities,” he said.

The second pillar looks at increasing professional development opportunities for staff and expanding credential opportunities and work-based learning that allows students to gain experience on job sites.

“My goal is to have as many students as possible experience that,” he said. “If they’re coming to Auburn, they are telling us loud and clear they want to learn these skills and they also want to kind of check them out and see them in practice.”

ACC could also collaborate more with business, industry and higher education partners to make sure every program has a clear pathway, either into the workforce, military or continued education, Glavan said.

“We need to start connecting the dots for our students,” he said. “We need to create the pathway for them so they can pick which one they want.”

Glavan said he would also like to see some core classes integrated into the career center so the school could provide students with on-site math, English and similar classes.

The school is currently in discussions with Lake Erie College about adding a LEC satellite college on the ACC campus, he said.

“What that would do is allow our students the opportunity to take comp one, comp two, algebra, trig, economics, psychology,” he said. “All of these classes where, now when you come to Auburn, you don’t have to pick whether it’s college or career. You could do the best of both worlds right there having a four-year university right on our campus.”

Regarding fiscal responsibility, Glavan said he wants to continue evaluating enrollment trends and program performance.

ACC has also increased the amount of direct instruction time for students and decreased periods like study halls, he said.

The school will also be developing a master facility plan to evaluate labs and industry equipment and keep programs modern, he said.

In reference to the fourth pillar, Glavan noted ACC has already rolled out an updated website for better communication, consolidated its recruitment window from four months to about six weeks and sent packets to tenth-grade students in member districts with resource guides and application information.

The school is also exploring a business partnership guide to outline opportunities for local businesses, he said.

Board Vice President Susan Culotta emphasized the importance of maintaining the school’s workforce development focus.

“Our focus and our niche is workforce development and I don’t want that to become diluted,” she said.

Board member Barb Rayburn noted, however, that some students want both workforce skills and the option to attend college.

“(This plan) hits every mark for me because it speaks to both,” she said.

Glavan assured the board that workforce readiness remains ACC’s core mission, even as the school brings in partners to expand student experiences.