Dubroff: Oktober-Überraschungen für Pädagogen an der Zentralküste summieren sich
Dieser Artikel wurde ursprünglich von der Pacific Coast Business Times veröffentlicht.
Improving educational opportunities for Central Coast residents is about the only way the region will be able to cope with our sky-high housing costs.
Announcements in recent weeks from Cal Poly, Cuesta College and the Ventura County Community Foundation point the way toward progress in raising skill levels from pre-school to college degrees.
In one of the biggest awards announced this year, Cal Poly’s School of Education announced $8 million in federal grants to recruit and train some 1,500 teachers.
The grants focus on bilingual students, students with disabilities and closing a credential gap that sees roughly 1 in 10 teaching jobs “unfilled or filled with individuals without certifications,” according to data by WestEd, an organization quoted in the release announcing the big grant.
“We’re really trying to change the local educational environment in a variety of synergestic ways,” said Chance Hoellwarth, director of the Cal Poly school in the same release.
Major beneficiaries will be school districts in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties as well as Cuesta and Allan Hancock College.
Also included is outreach to the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project or MICOP, which serves large populations in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
MICOP is a twenty-three-year-old nonprofit organization that’s gotten much better visibility in recent years.
There are now roughly 45,000 people of Mixteco heritage in the region with large clusters in Oxnard and the Santa Maria Valley; they emigrated legally from Mexico seeking work on Central Coast farms as far back as the 1970s.
Of the $8 million, $4.7 million will go to a program called INSPIRE to recruit and train teachers. Some $3.3 million will train bilingual educators statewide.
“We’re seeking to develop a workforce that is Ready Day One,” said Tina Cheuk, the Cal Poly professor who is a co-principal investigator of the grant.
Meanwhile, in Santa Maria, Allan Hancock College has finally achieved provisional approval from the community college Chancellor’s office to offer a B.S. degree in applied professional studies.
The college still needs to get final approval but it is a major milestone in the very long quest to provide an affordable, public option for local government workers, agricultural and industrial workers to get a bachelor’s degree.
Hancock President Kevin Walthers called the approval “a defining moment for our college and the region.”
The approval kicks open the door for thousands of workers who have gone as far as they can in their current jobs to getmove up to supervisory positions or otherwise qualify for higher paying jobs.
The city of Santa Maria, financial institutions, manufacturers, aerospace firms and others have been clamoring for a lower-cost option.
This is a big break that will make North Santa Barbara County’s economy much more attractive as a place to work.
In Santa Paula on Oct. 19, more than 680 people turned out at a local elementary school to visit 48 different booths at Ventura County’s inaugural Children’s Festival.
The event was a kickoff of sorts for the Isabella Project, an experimental program in early childhood education that’s trying to make sure every child in Santa Paula has access to high-quality childcare and early education. First convened by Ventura County Community Foundation, the Isabella Project now has a long list of partners including First Five, KidStream, the County Office of Education and CSU Channels Islands just to name a few.
“We’re excited to bring this festival to the people who are helping to make the dreams for our youngest Santa Paulans possible,” said Dr. Gabino Aguirre, co-chair of the Isabella Project in a statement.
Finally, a shoutout to CSU Channel Islands President Richard Yao, recipient of the Community Empowerment Corporate Award at the Ventura County NAACP’s annual banquet earlier this month.
Yao was cited for improving relations between CI and several Ventura County youth organizations and local Churches.
Henry Dubroff is the founder, owner und editor of the Pacific Coast Business Times. He can be reached at [email protected].