Ed roundup: New Panama-Buena Vista board member named
| Monday, Aug 31 2009 05:36 PM
Last Updated Monday, Aug 31 2009 05:38 PM
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NEW PANAMA BOARD MEMBER
Keith Wolaridge was appointed to the Panama-Buena Vista Union School District Board of Trustees at last week's board meeting.
Wolaridge, whose children attend Panama schools, replaces retired board member Bill Bruce.
Wolaridge is a Union Bank of California vice president and serves on the board of directors of the Republican Assembly of Kern County.
SAFE MILES
In August, the Kern County Superintendent of Schools honored school bus drivers with sterling safety records.
Jane Frando, retiring this month, has driven 682,804 miles with no accidents.
Also accident free: Julia Beverly with 799,397 miles, and Julia Hughes leads all active drivers with a total of 988,861 safe miles.
They are three of five drivers hired in 1981 who have worked a cumulative 191 years and logged more than 4.5 million safe miles.
TOP HONORS AT STATE FAIR
Kern High School District Regional Occupational Center students Josh Whinery and Andrew Folsom won "Outstanding Project" honors in the Industrial and Technology Education Competition at the California State Fair in Sacramento.
Last year Whinery and Folsom produced Kern Government Television's weekly program highlighting animals available for adoption at the Bakersfield SPCA.
Their broadcast video work took first place in the video category, and overall top honors in the broader category of new media.
Seven other ROC students took first place at the fair.
"It reaffirms that the work we do at the ROC is helpful in providing local industry with skilled workers," said Dan Binsfeld, ROC graphic arts instructor.
CALIFORNIA TEACHER CORPS
A new organization called the California Teacher Corps has formed with the goal of placing 100,000 teachers in public schools in the next decade.
The CTC represents about 70 alternative teacher programs in California that recruit second-career professionals and support them in becoming fully credentialed teachers.
The alternative programs are especially adept at recruiting minority and math teachers, the types of educators who are perennially under-represented in schools, said Catherine Kearney, CTC president.
Kearney said teachers who enter the profession often have a hard time figuring out how to get started. The CTC hopes to smooth the process.
Over the last six years, more than 50,000 people have entered teaching through alternative-certification programs, including about 150 current teacher interns in Kern County, said Kern County Superintendent of Schools program coordinator Tania Schalburg-Dykes.
"I think this is going to help with recruitment," she said.
Learn more at www.cateachercorps.org
NEW BC FACULTY
Bakersfield College welcomed 12 new faculty members for the start of fall semester, four of whom are former BC students.
The new hires fill positions vacated by retirement or faculty moving to other positions. BC currently employs 254 full-time faculty.
The college tracks retirements closely, in part because the hiring process requires about nine months. Currently 70 faculty members are over age 56, and 42 are under age 40, according to spokeswoman Amber Chiang.
Former BC students turned faculty are: Gabriele Martin, nursing; Erin Miller, history; Joshua Ralls, welding; Neal Stanifer, English.
ROBOT COURSE
A sampling from the Levan Institute's fall course catalog: Build a robot, connect with your grandkids. Levan Institute instructor Ron Siemens, a graduate of Bakersfield College and a long-time aerospace industry scientist, is teaching the "Nuts and Volts of Robotics."
Course participants will build robots that avoid obstacles, navigate through a maze, walk a line, or play music. No specific knowledge or mechanical training is required.
Register online: http://tinyurl.com/l9vt3e or call about hours for registration: 395-4011
