CORONA NORCO : Rotary Club ‘Adopts’ Vocational Center : Move Is Part of Effort to Involve Private Groups in Public Schools

With a pledge to provide job training sites and career guidance to high school juniors and seniors, the Corona Rotary Club on Thursday “adopted” Buena Vista High School, the Corona-Norco Unified School District’s vocational education center.

“There will be benefits to the students, who will be able to associate and work with members of the (business) community,” said Ralph Trantow, president of the club. “And I think the community will benefit because Buena Vista will be turning better people out into the marketplace.”

Rotary Club members will offer field trips, practice interviews and job guidance to Buena Vista’s 90 students, he said.

The adoption--the second of a Corona-Norco district school--is part of the district’s Partners in Education program, an aggressive effort to involve private organizations in the area’s public schools.

Since Supt. Don Helms initiated the program when he took the district reins in 1983, school officials have elicited contributions of goods, services and personal participation from businesses and community organizations.

The first school adoption came in November, when Circle City Hospital agreed to participate in activities at Stallings Elementary School in Corona.

And next week, the Board of Education will consider three more school adoptions: Jefferson Elementary School by Corona Community Hospital; Vicentia Elementary by Corona Community Care Center; and Norco Junior High School by Dynalectron, a Norco-based data-processing firm.

“The purpose of Partners in Education,” explained Herb Thompson, the district’s coordinator of special projects and public information, “is to involve business and industry and the community in a meaningful relationship with the schools, a relationship that will result in benefits to the school and the community . . . .

“Our Adopt-a-School program is adapted--really not adopted--from the Baton Rouge School District in Louisiana where Don Helms came from. Most of the things we have in the program are patterned after that.”

Programs in Other Districts

The most significant innovation in the local program, he said, is the involvement of the Corona and Norco Chambers of Commerce in soliciting participation.

Other California school districts have begun school-adoption programs, Thompson said, but Corona-Norco has been among the most ambitious in providing several avenues for private-sector involvement in its schools.

The school district is looking for organizations to join in partnerships to support specific activities within its schools, Thompson said, as well as to provide the broader support of adopting an entire school.

The Partners in Education program also includes a speakers’ bureau for the schools to draw upon community members’ expertise and a surplus materials warehouse, which has accepted donations ranging from encyclopedias to furniture for the schools’ use, Thompson said.