For Guilderland School Board
Technology program a priority



GUILDERLAND — It’s not your parents’ vo-tech.

Guilderland School Board members heard a presentation last Tuesday about vocational opportunities for high school students provided by the Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

At the same meeting, the board adopted two priorities for this school year — examining and developing a district-wide technology program and an elementary-school foreign-language program.
"The job of BOCES is to get out in front and do the things you can’t do, you can’t afford to do, you don’t have the critical mass," Hank Stopinski, director of Career and Technical Education at BOCES, told the board members.

He talked about an on-line business program and a project where students work with venture capitalists, creating a virtual corporation.

Students log on to curriculum written by a major corporation, he said, and, in the classroom, they are coached, rather than lectured to, by a certified business educator.

BOCES students can obtain college credit for some of their work and state and national certification in various fields, he said.

Students often compete at both state and national levels, Stopinski said, citing a pair of National Automotive champs from the program two years ago.
They were given "a free ride" for an associate’s degree, he said, and, upon completing that, were given a literal free ride — a new car for each.

Two years out of high school, he said, each BOCES grad is earning $70,000 a year.

A generation ago, Stopinski said, students entered vo-tech programs if they couldn’t learn college-level material. That is no longer the case, he said. Studying to be a mechanic, for example, now involves electronics and physics.
"It’s not changing oil and tires," he said. "They’re the ones you’re paying $100 an hour."

Several school board members laughed appreciatively.
Stopinski also said that BOCES is changing its traditional "building-centric model" to bring programs into the schools its serves.
"We’re currently looking at piloting the use of iPod technology...on-line delivery...We think high schools are ready for that," he said. "We’ve got students doing stuff in drop boxes at 11, 12 on Saturday night."

BOCES boosters

Stopinski showed a seven-minute promotional film used to recruit students from the 25 school districts served by the Capital Region BOCES. The video featured four recent graduates of the Career and Technical School — a mechanic, a chef, a television reporter, and an elementary-school teacher.

Amanda Hennessy, the mechanic, said she was no expert in the field to begin with but learned through a combination of academics and hands-on career experience.
Joe Maloney, the chef, said he was "a visual hands-on learner" and appreciated the opportunity to learn that way.
Scott Patterson, who went on to the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University to become a reporter, said the BOCES program "made the transition to college easier."
Kimberly Bushey, the elementary teacher, liked the BOCES program because it was "individual based."

Stopinski distinguished the career and technical program from the alternative education programs offered by BOCES. High school students in the career program spend a half-day at their home school and a half-day at the BOCES school. The two-year sequences are offset with state BOCES aid.
"We have valedictorians in the BOCES program," he said.
Full-day programs are offered for alternative education students. The full-day programs, Stopinski said, are "for students having a difficult time in a traditional learning environment."

Stopinski also described the BOCES New Visions program in which advanced students travel to a venue — such as a hospital — to learn about a field of interest. They do college-level work, he said, participating in different aspects of medicine, from the emergency room to the x-ray center, while also studying traditional subjects, such as literature, as it relates to medicine.

Electives at GHS

The board also heard from Brian Bailey, assistant principal at Guilderland High School, and from Amy Arena, a high-school guidance counselor, about in-house vocational career programs.
Before state and national standards changed a decade ago, Bailey said, there might have been a more "comprehensive sequence" in non-core subjects, that is, subjects besides English, social studies, math, and science.

He listed current courses in art and music; technology; business; computers, physical education, and science; and performance.
Board Vice President John Dornbush said that his son hadn’t had room in his schedule for "a single elective."
"A lot of life is full of choices," said Bailey.
Dornbush said that some families believe electives on a high-school transcript aren’t as appealing to college-selection committees. He said he’d like students to be able to take "one or two exploratory kinds of courses."
Board member Catherine Barber said that, with the block scheduling at the high school, it seems impossible for students to pursue courses in both art and music, which she said was "a little disappointing to the kids."

Nine years ago, the high school moved to a block schedule, which has fewer, longer periods for more in-depth work in classes.
"Block scheduling doesn’t allow kids to explore a lot of fields," said board member Barbara Fraterrigo.

She suggested adding a period at the end of the school day for which teachers would volunteer, starting later in the morning to compensate.

Board member Colleen O’Connell pointed out that would exclude athletes who have after-school practices and games.

Board priorities

Shepherded by its new president, Richard Weisz, the board, after months of discussion, adopted for the first time a set of its own priorities for the school year.
After the board members on Tuesday described their budget priorities, Weisz said, "It sounds to me like we have reached a consensus on the technology and FLES [Foreign Language in Elementary School] issues."

Several years ago, a district-wide committee of teachers, parents, and administrators made an enthusiastic presentation to the board in support of starting foreign-language instruction at the elementary level. It currently begins in the middle school.

Constraints imposed on teachers’ time with increased testing mandates and budget concerns shelved the program.
Fraterrigo, who has long been a proponent of the FLES program, said, "We’re not going to jam anything down anyone’s throat."
She said Al Martino, the foreign-language supervisor, had "creative ways" of approaching the program.

The board also discussed short- and long-term goals in technology education.
Board member Peter Golden said, "You have to work on two different tracks" and have both long- and short-term goals.
Board member Hy Dubowsky said that already-developed programs could be used "without having to re-invent the wheel."
"When we set a goal or priority," said Weisz, "we then turn to the administration to respond in some way to our goal...We’re nudging them like a tugboat."
Superintendent Gregory Aidala said that was "a fair and reasonable expectation." He said the administration would generate both long- and short-term plans.

After a unanimous vote adopting the two priorities, Golden referred to comments made earlier by the superintendent not to lose sight of the many excellent things happening in the district.

Golden said that progress is often seen as a critique of the present.

Particularly with a high-tech curriculum, he said, the district has to move rapidly or the curriculum, which is ever-changing, will be outdated.
"This stuff is incredibly exciting...It doesn’t mean we have bad teachers," said Golden.