THOUSAND OAKS : Special-Ed Students Get Down to Business

About two dozen Thousand Oaks special-education students oohed and aahed with delight at the heavy machinery paraded before them during a tour of an equipment rental business this week.

The field trip to Lister Rents on Thursday was meant to be a fun look at a business to interest students in thinking about jobs, money and the future, Principal Steve Gordon said.

Students guessed at the price of wet cement displayed in the bucket of a backhoe, and some even stuck their hands into the gray gunk.

“It reminds me of actors doing it in Hollywood,” said Tim Ward, 21, a 12th-grade student in the Conejo Valley Unified School District’s summer school program at Conejo Elementary School.

The class was made up of junior and senior high school students with special needs ranging from learning disabilities to developmental delays, Gordon said. In all, about 175 of the district’s 1,700 special-education students attend summer school, Gordon said.

“A lot of these students have fears about going in and trying something new,” Gordon said. “This takes some of those fears away.”

Added teacher Meredith Bullock: “They learn about something outside of their normal routine.”

Some of the district’s more advanced special-education students participate in summer internship programs at two local businesses, Gordon said.

“Making the transition from school to work is critical for these students,” he added.

Some of the students, dazzled by the machinery they saw and touched at Lister Rents, said they discovered new job interests. Ninth-grade student Mike Klufetos, 16, has been cleaning tables in the teachers’ cafeteria to build his job skills.

Now, he said with a grin, “I want to drive a tractor.”

Corey Lister, owner of Lister Rents, said the tour seemed like a small project. But the students’ enthusiasm made it a big deal, he said.

“They’re so jazzed,” Lister said.