RESEDA : Cleveland Students Talk Shop With Kids

They were exacting clients, bent on producing impeccable product.

But for 10 Cleveland High School students who helped elementary school children make wooden figures, the real challenge was working with their peers in Cleveland’s shop classes.

“The kids were fun,” said Dayla Johnson, 18, a Cleveland senior. “The headache was back at our school--when things didn’t get done, or were done wrong. We were going bonkers.”

The students, who are involved in the local chapter of Vocational Industries Club of America, and Cleveland drafting teacher Don Runyan started the new program, IT’s (Industrial Technology) Elementary, four months ago at four San Fernando Valley elementary schools. The idea was to give high schoolers firsthand management experience, and elementary school children their introduction to vocational skills, Runyan said.

The program, which wrapped up Friday, placed elementary students in the role of designers or draftsmen. Once the younger children had completed drawings, the Cleveland students took over. Acting as contractors, Cleveland students oversaw classmates who in turn acted as subcontractors, who translated the designs into carved-wood figures and attached them to metal brackets.

The designs were returned to the children to paint last week, and Cleveland students made their last visit to the classrooms Friday. Several plate-sized finished projects from each of the four schools--Reseda Elementary, Cantara Street School, Lorne Street School and Winnetka Elementary--will be displayed at the San Fernando Valley Fair July 8-11 at the Equestrian Center, 480 Riverside Drive, Burbank.

Cleveland senior Kristen Riley, 18, said the children were intent on seeing their designs reproduced accurately. The classes produced 356 wooden figures to the apparent satisfaction the children, whose ages range from 10 to 12.