CTE Spotlight – Bailey Sitts

Pendleton High School
2025 CTE Month Spotlight

Meet Bailey Sitts, Engineering Instructor at Pendleton High School

What do you teach? 
I teach the engineering pathway at PHS including Intro to Engineering Design, Digital Design and Production, Robotics and Aerospace.

In your classes, what is the CTE focus for the 24-25 school year? 
My focus is to work further within the Oregon Employability Skills curriculum and to further our Career Technical Student Organization connection through TSA by having more focus on my own involvement and student competition attendance.

How do you think CTE work in your school is making a difference for students? 
It is teaching students that all of the basics they have learned so far have a connection to real life. CTE is a wonderful bridge between basic education and technical skills that shows students how to apply what they’ve learned already to more specific and real circumstances while they explore their strengths and abilities before entering trade schools, the job market, military or college. CTE at PHS is making a difference by showing students they can do anything and that no job, school or skill is out of their reach.

What is something people may not know about CTE in schools? 
As a CTE teacher, I hear that our classes are “just electives” all too frequently; CTE is more than just an elective. CTE in schools is a necessary connection between professionals in the field, community, and students that is intended to build community connections and bring industry standard knowledge into the classroom for students.

Most CTE teachers are brought in from industry to teach what they know and bring a higher level work ethic and expectation into the classroom that more closely mirrors a workplace than a traditional classroom.