JVS is great partner for schools

by GEOFF ANDREWS

Oberlin schools superintendent

I have used this space in the past to write about many of the great local partnerships enjoyed by the schools that benefit our students. There is (at least) one additional partnership deserving recognition and appreciation.

Located in our district is the Lorain County Joint Vocational School, which offers career and technical education to dozens of Oberlin High School students and an impressive array of learning opportunities for all of the adults in our community. And they offer these opportunities in a great facility.

As I said to John Nolan and Cathy Pugh (JVS Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent, respectively) recently, their building is their most valuable marketing asset. Getting students and citizens in the door is their biggest challenge; after that the programs and the facility sell themselves.

One great element about our partnership with JVS is that the JVS is a forward-looking institution, helping to shape the future of our work force. This fall they will install in Oberlin High School a computer lab in which they will teach our students a pre-engineering course.

They are even providing the teacher, just as they do with Chris Frank's Career Based Education program at the high school. At no cost to the district, JVS will provide all it takes to teach this course, and the high school will have the use of this facility for online courses, research, and other purposes the rest of each day.

Beyond this new pre-engineering course, the JVS is going through a strategic planning process that may lead to programs in wind turbine technology, photovoltaic systems, geothermal heating and cooling, and perhaps fuel cell or biomass. It is truly a progressive organization, and a great partner for the Oberlin schools and the community.

A couple of misperceptions have dogged the JVS for years. These center on who goes to the JVS and where they go after completing a high school program at JVS.

The traditional perception of the JVS was that students who attended there were less motivated, unfocused, less capable students who were at the end of their formal education. Hardly. JVS students often have a clearer idea of their future than many of their non-JVS peers.

They know that they like to work with computers and networks, or health professionals, or high end welding equipment, or automobiles, or bakery and restaurant food, or construction equipment, or machining tools, or AutoCAD, or video production, or plumbing, heating, electrical, air conditioning and other building trades, or accounting and office equipment, or law enforcement, or cosmetology, or any one of a number of other programs that each has far more specialized training and equipment than a local school district could afford or maintain. This focus leads JVS students to be very highly motivated.

Regarding their post-JVS lives, well more than half of the students completing their programs at the JVS go on for additional higher education. For that matter, a great many of the students at the JVS earn college credit hours -- on the JVS campus -- while they are still in high school.

One of my favorite success stories from a JVS is Michael Ciaravino. Years ago I got to know him when he was the mayor of Maple Heights.

He went to a JVS and was in a construction program -- carpentry -- and found he really enjoyed learning much more than he had in a more traditional learning environment, sitting in rows and listening to lectures. So he thrived in that carpentry program and moved on to community college, paying for tuition by utilizing his carpentry skills.

That worked out, so he finished his bachelor's degree at Cleveland State, paying for it with more carpentry work on the side. By then he realized he was quite a capable student, primarily due to the spark that had been lit in the carpentry program.

So off he went to law school, funding it with -- you guessed it -- his carpentry skills. Eventually he became a solicitor and was ultimately elected mayor in Maple Heights.

And while this is but one anecdote, there are countless other success stories that come from our JVS and others.

So if you haven't gone out the JVS, you owe it to yourself to visit their upcoming open house or stop by some other time. Go walk the warm hallways on a cold winter day, or stroll the cool hallways on a hot summer day. Pick up some bakery or stop at the restaurant for a meal. Get your oil changed or get your hair cut (not a very useful option for me, but you get the point).

In this era of tight school finances here in Oberlin, it is great to have the JVS as a partner, offering so many options for our students and our citizenry.