Quarterly Narrative Report

Imperial County UROG School to Work Grant

October - December, 2000

Prepared by: Deborah Harrold

School to Career Coordinator

IVROP

(760) 336-2418 Voice (760) 336-2780 Fax

harrold@icoe.k12.ca.us <mailto:harrold@icoe.k12.ca.us>

Part I - Narrative Report

A. Foundation of Local School to Work Program

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 and offer advise about the progress of the Urban/Rural Opportunities Grant.

The foundation of our School to Work program is our partners who continually offer support and encouragement for the program. This quarter we have had additional employers join us as partners in specific projects and/or they serve on our STC advisory committee. Those specific projects are mentioned in the “Attention to All Learners” portion .. at Calexico High School.

B. Implementing the Local School to Work System

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, El Centro Chamber of Commerce, Calexico Lion’s Club, 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.

C. Attention to All Learners

Career Fairs

School to Career organized the Heber School District career fair for November 15, 2000. We had 30 employers that participated. Presenters included two hair stylists from the Hair Inn, a journalist from the Imperial Valley Press, an auto mechanic teacher from Imperial Valley College, a Board of Supervisor member, USDA, the Narcotic Task Force, Department of Corrections, U.S. Customs, Imperial Printers, Rutter Communications, Channel 13 KSWT, U.S. Immigration Canine Unit, U.S. Border Patrol, Imperial County Fire Department, Torrence Implement and Gold Cross Ambulance. All children from K-8th grade benefited from this career fair. Directly following the career fair, Heber School District provided an informal luncheon for the employers. Many of the employers expressed to me that they enjoyed the informal lunch because it gave them time to talk with other employers and they felt it was important to do that in order to be part of the whole School to Career program.

School to Career is organizing the Mains Elementary career fair for March 1st from 9:00 A.M. until 11:30 A.M. We will have presenters and vehicles for the 4th, 5th and 6th grade students. Mains Elementary will provide an employer luncheon following the event.

Power Lunch

Mains Power Lunches bi-monthly have been very successful. We scheduled lunches twice a month until the end of May for the 2nd and 3rd grade classes. Some of the employers that have volunteered their lunch hours are Tom Tunson, Calexico Chief of Police, Lilia Wong from Valley Independent Bank, Sandra Tauler - the Calexico Librarian, Rudy Maldonado, an IID Board Member and Rosie Terriquez who is a realtor.

Heber School District Power Lunches meet once a month. The first power lunch was with the ASB students who met with Sedelia Sanders. Sedelia has been very active in local government in a variety of roles, most recently running for State Senator. The employer on January 11th was Oscar Ruiz, a deputy sheriff with the Imperial County Sheriff’s Department. Oscar Ruiz has volunteered along with his colleague, Yvonne Naud to work with the Junior Achievement program for an 8th grade class at Heber.

Morning Champions

Because of the success of the Power Lunch program, we initiated the Morning Champions program at Calexico High School and Aurora High School. These one-hour sessions in the morning will take place with an employer volunteer working with the work experience students.

Parent Institutes

The Parent Institute for Aurora High School met on January 9th, January 16th and January 23rd thus far. 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.

Parent Institutes for Heber School District and Mains Elementary School will take place March 22nd from 5-8pm and May 2nd from 4-7pm respectively. We will replicate the Heber Parent Institute for Mains PI. Parents will receive advance information as to the offered breakout sessions. They will be able to choose either Spanish or English for behavior management/parenting skills, drug awareness/prevention, technology training, high school exit exam, college bound, IVROP vocational training, financial aid for college and vocational schools, and one-stop/job resource. Both schools are really looking forward to this event.

Calexico High School requested that School to Career become part of their open house in April, 2001 and provide a variety of topics in Spanish and English that would appeal to their parents.

We expect to conduct a Parent Fair at William Moreno Junior School in the spring. They conduct two areas of extensive parent training for new students and 9th grade students. After discussing the best approach for their school, we decided we would offer a Parent Fair that would provide a different type of experience through various workshops.

Career Pathways 2001

On Friday, January 12, 2001 forty (40) Heber School District Junior High students participated in this event. There were resource exhibits and two career workshop breakout session. After a break, Scott Wood from “Clean Comedians” talked with the students regarding choices in their lives. Some of the career workshops 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 - February 2, 2001

School to Career staff organized four group job shadows for Heber School District. Forty-nine (49) students will participate in this activity. Students will visit 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 will have their lunch in the park.

Tag-a-long Day

School to Career (UROG) along with the Calexico Chamber of Commerce and the Calexico Rotary will host the Tag-a-long Day for Calexico High School seniors. We anticipate approximately fifty (50) seniors participating in this activity. After their morning job shadow experience with an employer, we will have a luncheon for students and their employers at the Hometown Buffet. Last year all the Calexico dignitaries took part in this event. We hope to have Donna Corvin, the Public Affairs Officer of the U.S. Navy be our keynote speaker. Donna, who is Mexican has a wonderful life story to tell and is an inspiration to many of our students. We hope to use her in our schools as much as possible until she leaves us in June for the new Reagan carrier in Virginia.

Student and Teacher Internships

We continue to offer paid student internships to students ages 14 and older. We anticipate having a large number of students and teachers during Easter spring break participate in the internship program. We have found that once students go the worksite and serve under a mentor, they better understand the relevancy of their academics.

Imperial Irrigation District, our power and water utility continues to use the services of Jeanette Arzaga, a teacher at Heber School District. Jeanette is able to present information to IID employees that are interested in being part of School to Career activities such as career fairs, special speakers, field trips, etc. At our March 9th Employer Appreciation Luncheon we will recognize those employers that provided student and teacher internships under our UROG.

Financial Aid Seminar

School to Career (UROG) provided a financial aid seminar for senior students at Aurora High School. Ms. Lourdes Mercado, Mr. Raul Aragon and Mr. Sergio Gaytan of Imperial Valley College were the featured presenters. The agenda items were senior graduation requirements, EOPS and CARE Programs, Vocational Program and Financial Aid/Pell Grant information.

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.” We have met with all three teachers and have 3 employers that will begin in February. Marcela Piedra from the Small Business Development Center in El Centro will .. grade classes at Heber School District. The curriculum chosen by the Superintendent was “The Economics of Staying in School.” We have met with all three teachers and have 3 employers that will begin in February. Marcela Piedra from the Small Business Development Center in El Centro will .. grade classes at Mains will be served by Rosie Terriquez, who is a realtor, Isabel Tylenda, a community activist and businessperson and Danine Dawson, who manages her husband’s law firm.

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:

Our STW team gave a presentation at the 5th Annual School to Career conference in San Diego, CA on November 8th. The presentation title was “Opening the Employer’s Door: A Guide to Successful Internships.” Those presenting were Elena Castro, our Academic Specialist, Community Employer Coordinator, Alex Perrone, and the School to Career Coordinator - Deborah Harrold. We brought Jeanette Arzaga with us to give her perspective and insight on the teacher internship program and her experience with the Imperial Irrigation District.

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:

A benefit of our September 16th conference with Kathleen Harris was the filming of the conference. Working with Rutter Communications, we were able to put together a video that will be available to all schools and teachers in Imperial County. Additionally, the 3-hour video instruction will be seen on Channel 99, the Imperial County Office of Education’s televised educational channel.

In addition, for the January 25th Overall Economic Development Conference we were able to edit nine (9) minutes of Kathleen’s presentation at the September 16th conference and add an introduction to School to Career and provide a CD Rom (with other conference material) to each participant of the OEDC conference. A copy of the CD-Rom will be sent to the GOTR along 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.

D. Sustaining the School to Work System:

Employer Appreciation Luncheon - Keynote Speaker - Ian Jukes

On March 9th School to Career will host an Employer Appreciation Luncheon honoring those employers that have partnered and participated with School to Career. We have obtained the services of Ian Jukes who will give his “New Education for the New Millennium” presentation. Elena Castro, Alex Perrone and I heard Mr. Jukes at the November 8th STC Conference in San Diego and knew that our employers and educators would benefit from his expertise.

We expect to have 220 attendees for our Employer Appreciation Luncheon. After Mr. Jukes 1 hour, 45 minute presentation, we will recognize our employers.

Student Assemblies - Keynote Speaker - Ian Jukes

On March 9th we will have a student assembly at Calexico High School and later in the morning, we will conduct a student assembly at William Moreno Junior High School. Ian Jukes will be the featured presenter at both assemblies. Approximately 1500 students will attend the assemblies.

On March 9th we hope to film the student assemblies and employer appreciation luncheon to use as we did with the Kathleen Harris video. We are working with the Imperial County Office of Education to obtain funding for this purpose. Once again, we hope to broadcast this on our local educational channel 99. This would provide more instruction to all educators in Imperial County.

School to Career Advisory Committee

Our STC Advisory Committee continues to meet on a monthly basis.

STC Connecting Activity

The Women’s Leadership Coalition is providing a special event during Women’s History Month. STC is part of the organizational committee planning this event. The theme of the conference is “Heart, Mind and Funny Bone - A Balanced Approach to Leadership.”

It will take place at Imperial Valley College on Saturday, March 17th from 9 A.M. to 12:00. The cost of the conference is $5.00. School to Career will waive the fee for interested juniors and seniors at our school sites. We also hope to have lunch provided for our students who choose to attend this event.