Assistant Superintendent Dr. Staci Johnson presented the district’s 180-day graduate follow-up on Oct. 2, outlining where Owensville High School’s recent alumni are working in comparison to their former academic interests.

The conversation that took place at the Gasconade County R-2 Board of Education special workshop focused on numbers-based results of the district’s Career Technical Education (CTE) programs. Superintendent Dr. Jeri Kay Hardy, on Oct. 7, revisited the conversation that Johnson presented at the workshop.

“Since we took over (the graduate follow-up) last year, we are able to get right at a 100 percent response rate,” Hardy began. “Versus when we were having an outside company do it, we had more unknowns. We know our students, we know our families, and are able to really find out where our graduates go.”

According to Johnson’s data, the class of 2023 had 98 students graduate. Of those, 20 students or 20.4 percent attended a four-year college, 32 students or 32.7 percent attended a two-year college, 37 students or 37.8 percent are working at an employment completer, seven graduate, or 7.1 percent, are working for a non-employment completer, and two students, or 2 percent, are listed as other.

Hardy further interpreted the data for students who did not or are not attending a two- or four-year college.

“The 37.8 percent of former students who attended an employment completer went into the field that they had a concentration in,” she began. “The 7.1 percent of non-related employment completers are in a field that is unrelated to their academic studies. The two percent who are listed as “other” may be working in the home.”

She said those working in employment completer fields attended Owensville High School’s (OHS) CTE programs.

“Those are our CTE programs for agriculture and business, and marketing, and even the Pathway to Paraprofessionals program,” she said. “We are preparing students to work outside of high school, and they are entering the workforce prepared. (CTE) also provides their employers with employees who have real-life experiences and skills they have gained through the CTE programs while attending Owensville High School.”

The 2025 Annual Performance Reports (APR) have not been released for the 2024-25 school year, so the 2024 graduate follow-up report is not yet available.