Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but it sometimes is aided by the hands of a trained and licensed cosmetologist.
Now, high school students in Lowndes County School District are one step closer to becoming cosmetologists.
In 2025 LCSD high school students can graduate with 100 clinical hours to go toward cosmetology school, LCSD Career and Technical Center Director Susan McClelland told The Dispatch. She said the district is working on an articulation agreement with East Mississippi Community College and Vaughn Beauty College in Aberdeen.
According to the Mississippi State Board of Cosmetology, a student must have 1,500 clinical hours completed to earn a cosmetology license, which includes hair, nails, face and barbering.
“We have state regulations through (Mississippi Department of Education) and (MSBC) we have to satisfy,” McClelland said. “… This is the class our students were most interested in having, and really it’s all about the students and them gaining the skills they need to go out and be successful.”
The program, the third of its kind in the state, will replace the existing educator preparation program as instructor Ami Weldon is retiring at the end of the school year.
McClelland said students at Caledonia, New Hope and West Lowndes high schools were polled on whether they wanted to keep educator prep and what to replace it with, if not. There was overwhelming support for a cosmetology program.
LCSD board members approved the cosmetology program at its April meeting, and on Friday they are set to approve alternative school teacher Jessica Allen to be the full-time cosmetology instructor.
“Jessica is coming to us as a master’s-level teacher already in the district, and she also has the (MSBC) instructor license,” McClelland said. “She actually has taught cosmetology before at Vaughn Beauty College, so it’s a perfect fit.”
There will be two classes of 15 students each for the first year of the program, which will begin with the start of the 2023-24 school year.
The next year, the program will expand to two classes of first year students and two classes of second year students.
Over the summer, McClelland said there will be work done to change the educator prep classroom to a cosmetology classroom. The space will include styling stations, dryer chairs, manicure tables and pedicure tables.
Because the students will just begin learning, they will practice mannequins rather than people.
“We will be in a very early stage of learning, of course, and they will have theory,” McClelland said. “They will learn safety and infection control, anatomy and physiology, introduction to skin and nail care, properties of hair and scalp, principles of hair design. … Year one is just very basic hair care, nail care, those kinds of things.”
LCSD Superintendent Sam Allison said the program helps the students get closer to a career when they graduate, and the goal of the school is to make sure the students are prepared for life after high school.
“We’re going to make changes (at CTC) as we need to because we want to help as many students as possible,” Allison said. “I’m glad we’re able to do that and in a position that we can find something the students really resonate with.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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