If students want to struggle to be the next American Idol or
animator at DreamWorks, the high school can help them out. But if
students want a high-paying, readily available career in carpentry
or nursing, they are still out of luck.
Gilroy – If students want to struggle to be the next American Idol or animator at DreamWorks, the high school can help them out. But if students want a high-paying, readily available career in carpentry or nursing, they are still out of luck.
The Gilroy Unified School District board of trustees unanimously approved applications for state grants to build Career Technical Education facilities in performing arts and digital animation and design at Gilroy and Christopher high schools. While trustees were concerned about career paths not included in the application, they lauded the selected paths and the possible $6 million cost-reduction the grants could provide for Christopher High School, now $14 million over budget.
The board chose the arts program over career paths such as health care, construction, mechanics and technology.
Former GHS vice principal and drama teacher Greg Camacho-Light, a member of the CTE advisory committee, said members selected the paths to supplement an already strong GHS arts program.
“For many of these students, this is the beginning of what is going to get them through their careers and their lives,” he said.
In addition to arts training at both high schools, the three-year plan would include an expansion of the GHS law enforcement program and the addition of a CHS restaurant and food service program. Students enrolled in these programs would have special class requirements and receive a special certification upon completion.
The district organized the grant application on short notice for an Aug. 3 deadline to have first shot at a pool of $500 million of first-come, first-served state funding to build arts and computer classrooms. Between the two grants, the district could nab $6 million for CHS construction. If fully funded, the grants would erase 40 percent of the district’s $15 million facilities deficit.
Critics of the grant applications said they missed the career program’s purpose. The program should provide students access to local, high-paying jobs, not supplemental development in the arts, said developer district activist Christopher Cote, who spoke against the applications at an Aug. 2 board meeting.
“This is career technical training,” he said. “This is not fulfillment-of-the-soul training.”
Cote balked at a committee consultant’s comment that the program provided access to jobs at Electronic Arts, Lucasfilm and Pixar Animation Studios.
“Pixar is 100 miles away,” he said. “We probably should be looking at jobs we provide in this valley.”
The three digital production studios do not have offices in South County. The fastest-growing careers in Santa Clara County are in health care, construction and information technology, said Victoria Bradshaw, California Labor and Workforce Development Agency secretary, at a June 8 presentation to the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation.
Jobs in these sectors can bring high wages, with the average median wage at $42 per hour for a construction manager and $34 per hour for registered nurses. Almost 110,000 nurses will be needed statewide by 2014, the agency estimated. The agency also highlighted lower-skilled positions, such machinists and mechanics, almost 50,000 of which will be needed statewide at $18 per hour by 2014.
The EDC sent written or electronic invitations to the presentation to district staff and trustees, but no representatives showed up to the event, said EDC executive director Larry Cope.
Trustees recognized the grant application missed key sectors, including construction and technology careers. The district would have to look at these areas during the February 2008 grant cycle, Superintendent Deborah Flores said.
“We need to add other pathways that are tied to higher paying jobs,” she said.
As the district revisits which pathways need to be developed, it should also consider what grades should be targeted for the program, board president Tom Bundros said.
“We’ve got to get involved at grade seven and maybe even earlier,” he said. “It’s important to hook students as early as possible.”
