Culinary arts program coming to Northeast State in fall

BLOUNTVILLE — If you hunger for a community college culinary arts program east of Sevier County, Northeast State Community College plans to satisfy your appetite come this fall.Blountville-based Northeast State is launching a culinary arts program this fall, Northeast President Jeff McCord told the Sullivan County Schools Board of Education at a BOE retreat Friday.McCord said Sullivan County Schools is a major provider of high school students at the school, both dual enrollment and after-high-school programs, and he has no doubt that trend will continue with the upcoming culinary arts program.He was speaking during a retreat held on the campus of Northeast. The Northeast website Monday listed a culinary arts department head as a vacant position. Northeast communications specialist Tom Wilson said more information on the culinary arts offering would come soon.'WE NEEDED TO STEP UP'"We will start a culinary program in the fall," McCord told the seven-member school board. He added that the program will be designed so students after two years of associate's degree work can continue on to East Tennessee State University."We needed to step up," McCord said. Currently, the closest culinary arts program in a community college is at Morristown-based Walters State Community College.The Walters State program, called the Maples Institute of Culinary Arts, began in 1999 in Sevier County and was the first one in Tennessee accredited by the American Culinary Federation.Walters State offers an associate of applied science in culinary baking, an associate of applied science in hot foods, a technical certificate in culinary arts and the most recent addition a technical certificate in butchery.The Maples Institute for Culinary Arts is named in honor of the late Rel Maples, a pioneer of Gatlinburg's restaurant scene. His widow, the late Wilma Maples, was a benefactor of the college.After McCord's presentation, later in the retreat, Director of Schools Chuck Carter said that he and career technical education director Debbie Madgett are pleased Northeast will make culinary arts a career path at the college. Carter said he believes interest and participation in the Walters State program spurred Northeast to offer culinary arts in the Tri-Cities.Sullivan County, Kingsport and Bristol, Tennessee, schools have active culinary arts programs, as do Hawkins County Schools and systems in Johnson City and Washington County.GROW YOUR OWN TEACHERSMcCord also put in a plug for Sullivan County to consider joining or creating a "grow your own" program that aims to put teaching assistants and aides working in area K-12 school systems onto the path of becoming teachers.Currently, McCord said that in Carter and Johnson counties, 40 school system employees are working to get teaching certificates. McCord said that Kingsport City Schools has started a similar program, and he would like to see Sullivan County work with Northeast in such an effort.McCord said Northeast grow-your-own programs would partner with ETSU, where he said students would finish their journey to becoming teachers after two years of instruction at Northeast.McCord said such a teacher pipeline will be essential to K-12 education, especially as teachers retire.