Liberty High to launch Public Safety Career Pathway this fall

By Camille DeVaul · Fri May 01 2026

New CTE program will offer certifications, drone training, and career-ready skills for incoming freshmen

PASO ROBLES — A new Career Technical Education (CTE) Pathway is coming to Liberty High School this August. During the Tuesday, April 28, Paso Robles Joint Unified School District (PRJUSD) meeting, trustees learned about the Public Safety Pathway that is going to give students a head start on careers after high school.

Liberty students currently only have one CTE pathway on campus — the patient care pathway that is in its second year on campus.

PRJUSD College and Career Coordinator Megan Cannon explained to trustees that starting with the incoming freshman this fall, students will be encouraged to complete a CTE pathway. With that goal set, it's important the campus is able to build up the CTE courses available to its students.

"We need to build out some of those opportunities for our students at Alt. Ed. and provide them the better opportunities, the certifications, the career readiness for when they graduate," Cannon said.

To develop the new pathway, staff issued a survey to students that identified business and public safety as their top interests. From there, staff looked at industry needs, finding public safety has a projected growth of 3.7% in the upcoming five years. They then met with the Liberty High School Leadership Class for input. Public Safety then came out on top as a priority pathway to create.

Staff has developed two courses within the pathway to prepare students for careers in public safety and related fields. The first, Public Safety Careers (Concentrator Course), introduces students to job exploration and career requirements while emphasizing health and fitness standards, ethics, and civic responsibility within the community. Students also have the opportunity to earn relevant certifications, including Basic Life Support (BLS), Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and OSHA training.

The second course, Drones for Law and Public Safety (Capstone), builds on these foundations by preparing students to take the FAA Part 107 Commercial Drone License exam. The course highlights the broad applications of drone technology across multiple industries, including public safety, agriculture, engineering, and video media, and may offer future opportunities for dual enrollment with Cuesta College.

"We are seeing an increased use of drones across law and public safety," Cannon shared. "We're also seeing this in areas like agriculture, crop management, and livestock management. We see it in engineering, of course, and video media."

She added that this program is especially ideal for smaller schools like Liberty with limited CTE programs because students can go through the program with applicable skills that can be applied to multiple careers.

The curriculum will return to trustees as an information item on May 12 at the next Paso Robles Joint Unified School District meeting.