Oberle, Germanna Join Forces
New partnership means more opportunities for students and adults across the region.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Gavin S. has big plans - plans that he had previously felt were beyond his reach.
A student at Oberle Academy in Fredericksburg, Gavin struggled at his home public high school. The transition to Oberle, which features small class sizes — typically three or four students — extensive support, and knowledgeable staff, has proven transformative.
“I had low grades when I came here,” Gavin told those assembled on Thursday outside the school. “Now,” he announced to a resounding applause from the roughly 120 people at the school to announce an expansion of the school’s career technical education offerings, “I’m an honor roll student.” He will also leave Oberle with basic certifications in the trades — OSHA 10 certification and Electrical Level I certification.
For Germanna president Janet Gullickson, Gavin’s story is what happens when we “love all our children” and students.
Gullickson and Oberle Academy president and CEO Marbury A. Fagan II were together on Thursday to announce a new partnership between their two schools. The new relationship means more opportunities for students like Gavin at Oberle, but also more opportunities for citizens and potentially students at James Monroe High School to pursue training and certifications in skilled trades.
“This region is going to need trades people,” Gullickson said in her speech, noting the arrival of industries like data centers, warehouses, and solar farms. Industries that are only going to multiply in coming years.
Among the new trade skills that the partnership will make possible are training in electrical, plumbing, HVAC, forklift operations, welding, and solar energy, Gullickson told those gathered for the ribbon-cutting.
This partnership is a significant expansion for Oberle. The school has just 51 students, but it had additional space, which Germanna needed to grow its programs. Not only will Oberle students gain access to more trades training, but adults enrolled at Germanna will be able to start training at Oberle in July.
According to Gullickson, the two educational institutions have been working together for more than a decade. This new partnership will significantly deepen their ties. In talking points sent to the Advance, Gullickson noted that “The students completing these programs will finish school with skills they can immediately apply in the workforce, or they can continue to expand their skillset at Germanna.”
Oberle was founded in 1991, and Fagan talked with those in attendance about the passion those who work at the school have for their students.
He celebrated his faculty and staff’s “love of their students” and their recognition that the work they’re engaged in is more than a job; it’s “a calling.”
The school’s 51 students mostly come from more traditional public schools, where the students found they couldn’t get the support they needed to truly succeed.
The teachers at Oberle are all Special Education teachers, according to Fagan. The school also provides counselors and those equipped to deal with Oberle’s student population.
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