State education budget forces internship program cuts
| Friday, Mar 27 2009 07:42 PM
Last Updated Monday, Mar 30 2009 04:22 PM
Regional Occupational Center:Three-hour classes in specific programs allow high school juniors and seniors to earn up to 30 credits. Some units also count for credit at Bakersfield College. More info: www.khsd.k12.ca.us/roc/
The ROC annual follow-up study reporttracks students who attended ROC, and the percentage of students who went on to further education after high school or work in their ROC program field:
2006-07:1,339: 69 percent (936 working or in school)
2005-06:1,727: 62 percent (1,075 working or in school)
2004-05:1,693: 56 percent, (947 working or in school)
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Students compete at the 12th Annual ROC/P Skills Olympics in 20 programs. Nick Aguillar, 17, and Manual Bernal, 17, race to to rebuild a personal computer in the Computer Technologies class. The students were participating in a speed computer building competition; students also competed in a job interview competition. Students in the class do internships at Best Buy, The Computer Depot and SWAT PC Computer Repair in Bakersfield.
Mayra Rodriguez was looking for a way to save on car repairs, so she signed up for an auto tech course at the Regional Occupational Center.
The West High junior took basic auto mechanics courses and did an internship with GM at Motor City, then moved on to Bakersfield College for advanced training.
Now Rodriguez, 20, is a skilled, “bumper to bumper” technician, working on any vehicle that comes in for repair at Motor City. The solid income allows her to live on her own, and she drives a new Ford Mustang.
“It totally jump-started everything,” Rodriguez said.
This year more than 1,300 Kern High juniors and seniors enrolled in vocational training in more than 20 programs at the Kern High School District ROC. About three-quarters of the students are placed in internships with local businesses.
Another 1,600 students take classes at high school sites.
But state budget cuts will reduce ROC’s budget by 20 percent, or about $1.4 million, through 2009-10. Two teachers and an administrator position may be lost, and ROC will cut the Community Classroom program that provides bus transportation for students to get to internships.
And half of the one- and two-hour programs taught at high schools, such as video and Web design, will also be cut. The ROC cuts, especially the loss of the internship program, are a bitter pill for teachers and local businesses that employ interns.
The beauty of ROP was actually getting to hospitals or stores to practice your trade, said Michael Russo, owner of Russo’s Books and a full-time teacher at ROC.
“It is exactly the type of program we should be championing during a recession,” Russo said.
“Students come to ROC for a different learning experience, but we’re reverting back to a traditional classroom setting,” said Dan Binsfeld, the ROC’s graphic arts teacher.
“It’s the on-the-job experience students are going to miss out on,” Binsfeld said.
TOUGH CHOICE
The community classroom budget for bus transportation is $250,000, so when the decision came to laying off three teachers or cutting the program, teachers were kept, said ROC Assistant Principal Tess Lake.
“It’s a tough choice,” she said about the ROC program that is one of the best in the state.
Nursing assistant students are mandated to work 100 clinical hours before taking the state certification exam.
With the certificate, they have a leg up for competitive registered nurse training programs, Lake said.
“It hasn’t been cut, or changed, but we have said we won’t have community classrooms next year,” Lake said, when asked if the program would be cut.
She said the staff would work to keep internships open for students, even without transportation.
For instance, animal care program students will continue to work with the county animal shelter, and teacher assistant program students — who work as aides in classrooms for pre-K, kindergarten, and first and second grades — may work a one-day-a-week rotation at the ROC’s day care center.
REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE
After her ROC teaching assistant internship, Cindy Ruiz went to Bakersfield College, then got a master’s degree in early childhood education and became director of early childhood education in the Kern County Superintendent of Schools.
Students connecting to real agencies makes the program special, Ruiz said.
“When a job opportunity comes up we already have a history of their dependability, responsibility and interaction with staff,” she said.
Two student interns from Stockdale and Shafter highs shoot, edit and produce the animal adoption show that airs on KGOV TV, station manager David Brust said.
“They were filling a void I couldn’t fill easily, because our staff is so overburdened. They do a myriad of work for us,” Brust said.
ROC and the district’s career technical education initiative are separate programs. CTE will implement graduation requirements for incoming high school students next year.
ROC teachers have at least five years of experience in their field, and the ROC operates on separate funding from comprehensive high schools.
Lake recently advocated in Sacramento for ROC programs to be removed from the “Tier III” category of funding, from which a district can pull money to fund other programs. Lake said the decision wasn’t made deliberately by lawmakers, but it was a mistake to lump ROC in with general funding.
“We do pay our own way, and generate our own funding based on attendance,” Lake said.
Twice a year, Bob Meadows preps Regional Occupation Center banking and finance students on how to dress and shake hands on their first day of an internship.
“It’s almost a perfect combo of classroom and practicality,” said Meadows, vice president and branch manager of Union Bank on Stockdale Highway. “They learn it, then they go out and do it.”
