Mathews County Board of Supervisors vice chair Neena Putt told school superintendent Dr. David Holleran during last week’s board meeting that the school system should do more for students who aren’t college-bound.

Concerned about students who will stay in Mathews and become garage mechanics or welders or plumbers or own their own businesses and provide services to local residents, Putt said, “Mathews County needs to put a little more time into that.”

Speaking during the Jan. 22 meeting, Holleran said the division has been on par with other districts in career and technical education for the past five or six years. While some adults may feel there’s a need for certain courses, he said, “we’ve gotten burned in the past when we’ve set up a great course and it was not successful.”

In one such effort, he said, the county partnered with Middlesex to offer a class that would be taught some days in Mathews and others in Middlesex. The problem is that the students didn’t want to commute.

“We can’t create a course and expect children to take it,” he said.

The courses offered in Mathews are robust, said Holleran, including an automotive course that offers industry certification and a building and trades carpentry program that’s “doing good in the community.”

“I wish we could do more,” he said, “but we can’t do it for two or three students.”

Putt suggested that the school system offer internships with local businesses run by Mathews High School graduates who have stayed and successfully started a business.

Holleran explained that that is already an option for students, but Putt persisted, saying that young people are moving out of the county, and that the ones staying home should have the opportunity to be successful. Even if it costs additional money, she said, it should be done.