Centinela Valley Schools Try Highly Touted Student Jobs Plan

The Centinela Valley Union High School District, as part of a pilot program in California, this semester began a new work-training and job-placement program that has cut youth unemployment by 40% in schools in other states.

The program, unveiled in a special presentation to parents Wednesday night, is intended to consolidate the district’s fragmented vocational, work-experience and job-training programs.

The district so far has enrolled 475 junior and seniors from Leuzinger and Hawthorne high schools, school officials said, targeting all high school students who are most likely to drop out. It is specifically aimed at seniors with a grade-point average below C- and poor attendance, Supt. McKinley Nash said.

Created by Jobs for America’s Graduates Inc.--a Washington-based, nonprofit corporation funded by foundations and corporate donations--the program was first implemented statewide in Delaware in 1979. It has been copied in 280 schools in 14 states. In California, it is being offered this fall in the Centinela district and Merced County.

Four job specialists were placed in each high school in Centinela to identify students for the program, assist them in enrolling in vocational and technical courses, help them obtain entry-level jobs, and monitor their job performance for up to nine months after graduation.

The job specialists meet with students for at least 60 hours throughout the year, teaching them basic employment skills such as succeeding in an interview, expressing leadership skills, dressing properly, writing resumes and having good work habits.

School administrators praised the program as a weapon against delinquency and dropouts in their remarks during Tuesday’s school board meeting. The district, which covers Lawndale and Hawthorne, has 5,200 students in its two main high schools.

In districts where the program has operated, there has been a 40% reduction in youth unemployment, a 100% increase in minority student employment and a 20% increase in earnings for youths, according to a school district report.

“It is designed to reduce dropouts (and) train youngsters with a certain number of skills,” said Nash.

“I’m delighted with this,” said school board President Aleta Collins.

The school district has earmarked $400,000 for start-up costs, with $300,000 coming from the State Department of Education and $130,000 from the South Bay Private Industry Council, Nash said.

District representatives are seeking state and federal grants to reimburse the schools for the cost of the program. After the first year, the program is expected to cost about $200,000 annually.

The need for the program outweighs the cost, Nash said, because the district’s two high schools have a 25% dropout rate over four years. It is average for the state, according to school officials.

The district sought the program after Nash heard about it in June at a conference in Baltimore. At the same time, officials of Jobs for America’s Graduates were separately seeking to get the State Department of Education to offer the program.

Students volunteer for the program and earn credits toward graduation for the vocational and technical training courses. They are bused to the South Coast Regional Occupational Center in Torrance for vocational classes and go to El Camino College to attend technical courses such as computer programming and electronics repair, district officials said.

Wakiaa Fisher, a 17-year-old senior at Leuzinger, said she joined the program to get training and counseling to help her find a high-paying job after graduation.

” . . . .You don’t want to work at McDonald’s all your life,” she said.

Jeremy Watkins, also a senior at Leuzinger, said he thinks the program will encourage students to finish school.

“It’s very easy for someone to drop out and quit. My brother did,” he said, adding that the skills and counseling provided by the program “give you reassurance.”

Cristina Tapia, 16, agreed, adding that students at Leuzinger are very supportive of the program, which she said has been the topic of much campus talk.

Ken Smith, president of Jobs for America’s Graduates Inc., said the program has had an 85% success rate in placing students in jobs and keeping them employed. He said that if the program succeeds in Centinela and Merced, it will stand as an example for districts throughout the state.

“Everyone will be watching this,” he said.

Nash said he is in the process of appointing a board of directors composed of 13 corporate vice presidents from businesses in the South Bay to oversee the program and recommend policy changes to the school board.