Career and technical education in Pinellas got a boost this week when the school board unanimously approved a grant-funded, 5-year plan aimed at getting 50 percent of high school students into career academies by 2017.

The plan to develop the "Academies of Pinellas" is the product of a partnership between the Ford Motor Company Fund, Workforce Florida, the Pinellas school district, the Pinellas County of PTAs, the Pinellas Education Foundation and the Florida Association for Career and Technical Education. It's included in the board agenda packet, beginning on page 314.

“I applaud our School Board members for understanding the urgency of challenging our students, which the Academies of Pinellas certainly will do,” Pinellas interim superintendent John Stewart said in a press release put out by the foundation.

“We know that students in Career Academies academically out-perform students in the general school population across the state of Florida,” Gerry Hogan, co-chair of the Career Education Board, said in the release. More students in the academies "will translate to higher graduation rates, fewer absences, and higher FCAT scores.”