Quarterly Narrative Report
Imperial County UROG School to Work Grant
January 1, 2001 – March 31, 2001
Prepared by: Deborah Harrold
School to Career Coordinator
IVROP
(760) 336-2418 Voice (760) 336-2780 Fax
harrold@icoe.k12.ca.us
Part I – Narrative Report
The Imperial Valley Education/Business Workforce Coalition is the oversight committee for the Urban/Rural Opportunities Grant. The committee meets on a monthly basis to hear the status of projects and offer any guidance about the progress of the Urban/Rural Opportunities Grant.
Since receiving a fair amount of newspaper coverage and more School to Career activities in the schools, we have seen a tremendous response to our efforts in implementing this program. Our support staff (site leaders) at each school site makes time to discuss projects and entertain ideas of how to better coordinate various events for all involved. Both school districts, the Calexico Unified School District and Heber School District offer support and encourage participation in all our activities.
The School to Career staff is very involved in community activities such as the Calexico Chamber of Commerce, Women’s Leadership Coalition, Overall Economic Development Commission and the Southwest Border Pilot Community Response Team and the Enterprise Community committee. Participating in the community organizations provides a network of support and communication that has been vital to the sustainability of this program.
Parent Institutes
The Parent Institute for Aurora High School met on January 9th, 16th, 23rd ,30th,February 6th, February 13th, February 20th, February 27th, March 6th, March 13th, March 20th, and March 27th. The facilitator, Aurora Pinto chose a twelve (12) week course for parents and guardians and the attendance has grown with each session. The sessions are conducted in Spanish and the attendees are very grateful for the information regarding how they can best help their student in school. For the last session, two members of the WASC accreditation team observed and participated with the group of parents.
Heber School District held their Parent Fair on March 22nd from 5 P.M. to 8 P.M. We had approximately 200 parents attend and 204 children. Our opening ceremony included a Color Guard, the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem. Heber School provided free child-care so parents were available to attend the event. The child-care activity centers were grouped by grades and aides had activities planned for them as well as serving them a pizza and salad dinner. Heber School also provided a free spaghetti and pizza dinner for parents in the main cafeteria. They were able to choose from two dinner times that ran consecutively from 6:00 to 7:30 P.M. Parents were able to choose from 15 breakout sessions that included:
All sessions were offered in Spanish and English.
Many parents were appreciative of the variety of sessions offered. They were able to choose up to four (4) sessions for the event. Attached is the schedule for the breakout sessions and an Imperial Valley Press newspaper article.
We are currently planning the May 15th Mains Elementary Parent Fair from 5 PM to 8 PM and expect to replicate the same format and provide the variety of breakout sessions.
Tag Along Day
School to Career (UROG) along with the Calexico Chamber of Commerce and the Calexico Rotary hosted the Tag Along Day for Calexico High School seniors on April 3, 2001. We had forty-nine (49) seniors participating in this activity. After their morning job shadow experience with an employer, we had a luncheon for students and their employers at the Hometown Buffet. Employers participating in Tag Along Day included the computer technician and a kindergarten teacher at Heber School District, an engineer from Ogden Geothermal, a probation officer, the county agricultural commissioner’s office, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Border Patrol, a law office, a motel, a real estate office, Jefferson, Dool, Rockwood and Mains Elementary Schools, the City of Calexico, the Police Department, the Fire Department, KQVO Radio, Rutter Communications, the Imperial Valley Press, Cal Works, Superior Court, Allstate Insurance and the Calexico Chamber of Commerce.
Donna Corvin, the Public Affairs Officer of the U.S. Navy was our keynote speaker. She has been an excellent role model for the students in our community. Her passion for her work is always evident. She loves the opportunities that have been afforded to her because of her employer and wishes to share that message with high school students.
She likes to talk to students about the importance of subjects like math, English and science and how the U.S. Navy can provide good jobs in a variety of fields. Donna is always willing to go anywhere to talk to students about recognizing the importance of
their academic education. Donna is scheduled for April sessions with Heber School District and Aurora High School. We plan to use to use her as a special speaker in our other schools as well over the next couple of months before she is transferred to the new aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan in Norfolk, Virginia.
Educational Trip to Sea World
On March 30th Heber School District/School to Career sent approximately 150 students to Sea World in San Diego to take part in their educational program. The students had been studying oceanography, doing research on the internet and making posters of what they had learned. When they returned from the trip, they planned a mini-career fair to share what they had learned with other students.
The students and teachers met in the multi-purpose room and first shared with their seat-mate re: what they learned. Then student representatives from each class got up and talked to all the students about careers in oceanography and the skills and academics required for those positions. They had also made posters to show this information. The mini-career fair lasted from 8:45 A.M. until 10:30 A.M. The students also made the School to Career (with our logo) staff a poster and all students and teachers signed the poster. They also made the School to Career staff a book of thank you’s, complete with drawings of what they saw and experienced at Sea World.
We used this material at the IVROP open house.
Student Assemblies
Five hundred (500) Calexico High School students attended a student assembly that we put together for March 9th. Our special speaker was Ian Jukes who talked about the importance of new technology and education.
Approximately 500 students from William Moreno Junior School attended a student assembly on March 9th with Ian Jukes. Ian impressed upon the students that this is an exciting time for them and they should take advantage of all that is offered to them academically.
Power Lunches
Power lunches with employers continue to take place twice a month for Mains Elementary second and third grade students, and once a month for Heber School eighth grade students. Heber School is interested in expanding the program to the lower grades.
Morning Champions
The Morning Champions program continues with employers visiting Calexico High School and Aurora High School.
Career Fairs
The School to Career staff planned and organized the Mains Elementary Career Fair for March 2, 2001. The principal, Gloria Ceyala wanted to target the upper grades (4-th thru 6th) for classroom presentations and outside vehicle presentations and the lower grades (K-3) for outside vehicle presentations. We had 12 employers participating in the classroom presentations and 6 outside vehicles that participated.
Immediately following the career fair, Mains Elementary hosted an informal luncheon where employers would sit and relax and talk with other employers.
On March 29, 2001 STC staff participated in the Calexico High School Career Day with a booth in the gymnasium. Approximately 200 student internship applications were passed out to students.
Student and Teacher Internships
Twenty-two (22) student internships were completed from January 2nd, to March 31st. We have found that once students go the worksite and serve under a mentor, they better understand the relevancy of their academics.
We anticipate numerous students and teachers participating in this program during spring break April 16th – April 20th.
Career Pathways 2001
On Friday, January 12, 2001 forty (40) Heber School District Junior students participated in this event. There were resource exhibits and two career workshop breakout sessions. The sessions included: careers in law enforcement, careers in health, careers in the media, careers in business and finance, career awareness, careers in computer technology, careers in CAD and computer animation, careers in corrections, careers in education and careers in the environment.
Groundhog Job Shadow Day
School to Career staff organized four group job shadows for Heber School District. Forty-nine (49) students participated in this activity. Students visited U.S. Customs Service, Wal-Mart, Pep Boys and Hungry Howie’s Pizza Restaurant in Calexico. After completion of the job shadows, all four groups had lunch in the park before they returned to school.
Junior Achievement
Junior Achievement has been made available to all three of the eight (8th) grade classes at Heber School District. The curriculum chosen by the Superintendent was "The Economics of Staying in School." Marcela Piedra from the Small Business Development Center in El Centro will be working with Ms. Martha Sanchez’s class. Oscar Ruiz and Yvonne Naud of the Imperial County Sheriff’s Department will be working with Mr. Godinez’s class and Aurora Pascua of Government Agencies Federal Credit Union will be working with Mr. Arevalo’s class. Ms. Pascua was once a student of Mr. Arevalo. All three teachers are excited about what Junior Achievement can bring to their students. We were able to provide Mains Elementary with three (3) classes of Junior Achievement.
Junior Achievement at Calexico High School will serve John Welsh’s 3rd period class with our employer volunteer, Richard Harmon, Project Director for the California Center for Border and Regional Economic Studies at San Diego State University.
William Moreno donated their Junior Achievement to Mains Elementary, since those students feed into Moreno Junior High School. This enabled us to fund all three 4th grade classes at Mains with JA.
Policies and Support:
Through regular meetings with IVROP, CUSD and administration and staff at our schools, we are able to keep current with their regulations and policies.
Building the Capacity of The System:
The School to Career Coordinator (IVROP) was part of the planning committee for the January 25th Overall Economic Development Conference. We were able to edit nine (9) minutes of Kathleen Harris’ presentation at the September 16th conference and add an introduction for School to Career and provide a CD Rom (with other conference material) to each of the eighty-four (84) participants of the OEDC conference. A copy of the CD-Rom for the GOTR is included with this report.
The focus of the OEDC conference was on the development of local resources and capabilities to realize Imperial Valley’s 2010 vision. The conference discussed the issues of smart growth and workforce training in an effort to better prepare local residents and decision makers for the dynamic changes over the next ten years. It was an opportunity for the public sector and the business community to work together on economic growth and quality of life issues. We showed the School to Career video following the workforce training presentation by Rick Johnson, the STC Chairperson of the Steering Committee.
Employer Appreciation Luncheon, Two Student Assemblies and Teacher Assembly on March 9, 2001
On March 9th School to Career hosted an Employer Appreciation Luncheon honoring those employers that have partnered and participated with School to Career. Ian Jukes presented, "New Education for the New Millenium." There were 184 people in attendance at this luncheon. We honored our employers with a "Certificate of Appreciation" and a small gold "Success 2001" pin. Also, we presented the table centerpieces to our employers as an additional thank you for all the support they have given School to Career this past year.
We were also able to film the luncheon and Mr. Jukes’s presentation because of the partnership with Imperial County Office of Education, Desert Without Borders project pledged $1,800.00 for the cost of the filming and additional filming that we plan to do. This tape will be made available to all teachers in Imperial County as well be shown on Channel 99 – our educational channel.
Our power company, Imperial Irrigation District also pledged $1,000.00 for the luncheon as well as Valley Independent Bank pledged $500.00 to cover the costs of the luncheon.
As mentioned above, we also had Mr. Jukes give two student presentations (see above) and one teacher assembly in the afternoon at Heber School District. Our teachers at Calexico High School, William Moreno Junior High, Aurora High and Mains Elementary were invited to join the teachers at Heber for this event.
Connecting Activity – Heart Mind and Funny Bone, A Balanced Approach to Leadership
The Women’s Leadership Coalition is made up of women’s organizations seeking to increase the leadership in the Imperial County Community. Participating groups are: AAUW, Literacy Volunteers of America, Girl Scouts, Soroptimists, School to Career, MANA and Spectrum. WLC has had four successful years of providing leadership to women in the Imperial Valley.
This event is always held during Women’s History Month. This year on March 17th we had three components to the program; Lead with your Heart, Lead with your Mind, and Lead with your Funny Bone. The three speakers were Grace Sesma, Owner of Raphael, Center for the Creative and Healing Arts Center in El Centro, Dr. Marcela Wilson, a psychiatrist who has a special interest in women’s health issues, and Maggi Karr Payment, a speaker and writer who insists that silly is sensible and how one can reconnect with your sense of humor.
We made this program available to our junior and senior students and all teachers. Juniors and seniors that attended received a gift certificate for lunch at Sizzler or Scribbles.
All of these activities have the potential for sustaining the School to Career (Work) program. This past year our STC staff has laid the groundwork for these activities to continue, but a lot of planning and organizing must occur in order for these events to be successful. Our UROG funding provides the way for us to direct the activities for these schools in our federally designated Enterprise Community.
*Copies of our newspaper articles, event agendas, event flyers, student thank you notes, conference registration form and conference CD-Rom have been included in this report.