Quarterly Narrative Report
Imperial County UROG School to Work Grant
July – September, 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 about the progress of the Urban/Rural Opportunities Grant.
Members of the Coalition support and encourage all School to Career activities. They regularly attend special events, such as career fairs, employer luncheons, STC conferences and offer their respective workplaces as a classroom for student and teacher internships.
Our STC offices are located at Heber School District and the One-Stop office in Calexico. This enables us to offer services on a timely basis to all school sites and keeps us connected to each community. Working with community groups like the Calexico Chamber provides a network of employers who provide our students and teachers with workplace experiences.
During July and August of this year, we conducted our second Summer Institute for 160 “at risk” junior high students at Moreno Junior High School and Heber School District. Our institute consisted of a four week program and Moreno Junior High and a five week program at Heber Junior High School.
Our Summer Institute theme was “Envisioning Your Future”. We focused on academics, yet enhancing their studies with special speakers, local field trips and an out of town field trip to the Reuben Fleet Science Center in San Diego, California.
Elena Castro, our Academic Specialist chose the curriculum for both schools, along with representatives from each school site. Teachers were given a one day training session and our staff provided hands-on activities, special guest speakers, and field trips.
One of our special speakers was the United States Border Patrol, who brought their canine enforcement unit for the presentation. The students were fascinated as the dog handler spoke in german commands and the dog immediately responded every time. The agents talked to the students about their work, their educational requirements for their respective jobs and the importance of attitude and perseverance. The agents also brought “goodies” for the students – highlighters, mouse pads, and pencils. They brought USBP Frisbees for the teachers.
William Moreno Junior High School students were treated to a tour of the local Calexico Ten Movie Theatres. The movie projectionist talked to the students about his workday. He said he begins his day by turning on the equipment and various sound sources. He checks the indicator lights to make sure that everything is in working order. The high tech projectors are very expensive, so it is imperative that he cleans everything that the film touches and anything the magnetic sound system contacts.
The projectionist also talked about other responsibilities in his work. He monitors projection room humidity and temperature; inspects and replaces theater lights; check sound levels; loads and removes film; monitors running of film; repairs equipment, etc. He suggested to the students that if they were interested in this work, taking vocational school courses in electronics or mechanics would be a big help. However, most of the experience comes from on the job training. He said that students should concentrate on studies in computers, algebra, geometry, shop, and physics would be a big help. After the tour, students viewed a G-rated movie with their teacher.
One class of Heber students took a tour of Costco. Students learned about employee problems, the importance of having clean, well-stocked shelves, price posting, analyzing costs against sales and cross training in different departments. Students were impressed how quickly someone could change from a bagger position to handling more responsibility. Students took a tour of each department, the bakery, the meat department, the stock room, the pharmacy and talked with personnel from each of those departments. They learned about the direct operations of the store, along with calculated labor costs, checking invoices, monitoring inventory, scheduling employees, cleanliness, safety and appeal, assisting customers, phone inquiries, security system and ordering of merchandise. Students were then treated to a pizza lunch by Costco and were very impressed by what they had seen and heard! Again, our tour guide talked to the students about what they learn in their English and math courses are relevant to the work environment of Costco.
At the end of the Summer Institute all students from both Junior High schools were treated to a trip to the Reuben Fleet Science Center in San Diego, CA. During this trip, students were able to view two movies in the special IMAX theatre. MacGillivray Freeman’s Journey into Amazing Caves was a wonderful film of adventure with lessons of science. Students learned about how caves hold mysteries that reveal new materials, medicines and processes that help to increase our quality of life.
Especially interesting was the underwater caves where researchers study the extreme environments that force species to adapt. Students learned new vocabulary and applying science to real life solutions to problems.
Student and teacher internships are an ongoing endeavor. We work closely with Calexico High School in order to place as many students as possible. We completed approximately 70 student internships during this time period. Employers have been very receptive to the work experience for the students.
We placed eight teachers during this time period for internships. Jesus Flores, a teacher and Associated Student Body adviser at William Moreno Junior High School worked with the Executive Director of the Calexico Chamber of Commerce. Hildy Carillo Rivera enjoyed immensely working with Jesus. He was able to bring some of his computer skills to the workplace and designed special events material. He also felt fortunate to meet so many people through the chamber work experience. It was definitely a win-win experience for both of them! Jesus felt that what he learned was going to be easily assimilated into the curriculum that he taught. We will feature a story and photo of him in action at the chamber in our STC newsletter, “InfoLine” this December.
An STC presentation was made at the IVROP Board meeting on August 23rd. We were able to communicate to Board members our vision and how we are meeting the terms of the UROG.
School to Career staff participated in other activities during this time period. As the STC Coordinator is the secretary to the federally designated Enterprise Community, a special meeting of the Executive Board was held to ascertain the potential of merging the Overall Economic Development Commission with the Enterprise Community.
Building the Capacity of the System:
We attended a Faith-based community meeting that was organized by the Imperial Valley Regional Occupational Program. It was a productive time of making contacts and networking. In fact, one of the ministers will be attending the Sixth Annual STC Conference in San Diego with us on November 13th.
We also attended Calexico Chamber of Commerce events during this quarter. It is an important time for staff to network and strengthen those employer relationships that are so vital to our students.
On August 1st, our STC staff gave a presentation to the Farm Worker Services Coalition of Imperial County at the One-Stop Employment Services Center in Calexico. Various agencies were represented and it gave us the opportunity to talk about our different activities and events through School to Career.
Another STC presentation was given to the IVROP Annual Teacher’s meeting on August 25th. This was a time to acquaint IVROP teachers with the different programs and services that are offered through IVROP.
We attended the IVROP PACE program on September 27th. PACE is Providing Access to Careers and Education to clients between the ages of 14 and 21. They are provided with academic enhancement, leadership developments, paid and unpaid work experience, supportive services and comprehensive guidance and counseling services. We anticipate that our STC staff will work more closely with this and other programs.
Sustaining the School to Work System:
We completed the final editing of the Kathleen Harris video to be shown on our local educational channel 99. We plan to show this video numerous times during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. The purpose of making this tape was to provide staff development for teachers and instructional aides, as well as communicate the message to parents.
We also are working on the completion of the Ian Jukes video. We filmed Mary Camacho, Superintendent of IVROP and Robert Moreno, Superintendent of the Calexico Unified School District as an intro to the Ian Jukes video. Again, we will use this on Channel 99 as staff development for educators and educational/technology information for parents.
In the September STC steering committee meeting, our UROG staff was entrusted with the publication of the STC newsletter, “InfoLine.” Since the state grant was officially closed on September 30th, some of the events have been taken on by other entities.
Our first issue of the publication will be in December, 2001. We will be featuring stories by students and teachers regarding their internship experiences. We also will be reporting on our power lunches, career fairs, employer training luncheons and professional development opportunities for educators. We will be putting “InfoLine” on our website http://www.imperialvalley.net/stc