Family and Consumer Sciences

Part 4 of 4

Family and Consumer Sciences, which you might remember as Home Economics, is alive and well at Opelika High School.  In fact, Martha Cates is in the process of revamping the courses that are offered in order to help Opelika City Schools meet the new accountability standards.  Throughout the years, this program has provided Opelika High School students with the opportunity to learn about safe food handling, sewing, childcare, and a variety of other essential life skills.  Mrs. Cates has recently begun to grow the Early Childhood Education of this program as well.  It is her vision to offer students not just a classroom discussion about how children learn, but to provide her students with hands-on experiences in an elementary classroom setting.  Students are taking their book learning into actual classrooms in our community to truly grasp the role that teachers play in the lives of young children.  Through partnerships with Morris Avenue Intermediate and Jeter Primary Schools, Mrs. Cates’ students are partnered with an experienced classroom teacher and allowed to go into their classroom multiple times a week to work with children of various ages in an educational setting. 

While Mrs. Cates is preparing students for possible careers in childcare or education, she is also preparing them for jobs and careers in the food industry.  The next time you walk into any restaurant or food establishment you need to look for the “ServSafe” certification.  This will tell you that someone in that building has been trained and certified to properly handle and store the food you are planning on eating.  Mrs. Cates has been certified to give this test to her students while they are in her Food and Nutrition class.  This means that students can receive their “ServSafe” certification while still in high school, which provides our community with a well-trained and qualified workforce.  When a student who has this certification applies for a job in a fast-food restaurant or other food service industry, they have a better chance of getting a job and then being promoted to higher paying jobs because they come to the table with an established set of skills. 

So, the next time you walk into a restaurant and see their “ServSafe” certificate, remember that at Opelika High School, Mrs. Cates preparing her students help you eat safe food.