Tech-training upgrade sought
Pima County voters could fund program to prepare local teens
By Jeff Commings
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
If you go
A discussion of the Joint Technological Education District will take place at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave. For more information, call 670-0055. |
Pete Pederson looks at the five printing presses in his classroom at Pueblo High Magnet School and sighs.
In a way, he admires them for their durability. But he wishes they were in a museum instead of being put to daily use in his printmaking class.
The Tucson Unified School District doesn’t have the money to pay for 21st-century machines, so Pederson teaches his students how newspapers and other media made their products 40 years ago on the old presses. He tries to teach the modern approach, too, but it’s difficult and time-consuming.
Thousands of Tucson students are in the same situation as they struggle through career and technical-education classes that rely on outdated equipment, in rooms that haven’t been retrofitted for two decades.
But a strong contingent of school administrators, teachers and parents is hoping to change that with a proposal that could go before voters this year.
The proposal would fund what’s called a Joint Technological Education District, which would, basically, pool resources from two or more school districts to teach students an industry-certified curriculum. That would give all students even footing when applying for jobs or for college in specialized fields.
The technological districts are approved by voters in the school districts that want to participate. Most of the money comes from property taxes, about $10 a year per $200,000 of a home’s value. If all districts take part, officials expect about $10 million for the Pima County technology district, which could pay for new equipment to be used at current sites, a new central site or in classrooms at Pima Community College.
“We could upgrade what we have, as well as have a mechanism to share with other districts,” said Kathy Prather, director of career and technical education for TUSD.
A recent survey shows many registered voters in Pima County would vote for the technology district if it were on the ballot. The survey, created by the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management and the county School Superintendent’s Office, was taken online in the fall by businesspeople, parents and students in all 14 of the county’s school districts.
Of the 1,018 parents who took part, four out of five said technical and vocational classes — such as nursing, welding, auto repair and drafting — don’t do enough now to prepare students for careers right out of high school. Three of five students — about 33,000 of the 55,574 who took the survey — agreed.
That’s been enough to persuade some to add the initiative to the November ballot. The Tanque Verde Unified School District Governing Board was the first to do so when members approved a ballot measure last week. Other school districts — including TUSD, Sunnyside and Catalina Foothills — plan to make similar votes this spring. The deadline to get a measure on the ballot is in June.
“We’re very excited about this, and I hope this moves forward as quickly as possible,” Sunnyside board President Eva Dong said recently.
Ten technology districts created by 70 school districts already are in place in Central and Northern Arizona, and they receive $54 million yearly. Many of them were started in 2001, but state legislators halted the creation of Pima County technology districts. A loophole has allowed the initiative to move forward.
In Maricopa County, the results have been positive. According to the Eller survey, student enrollment in the special technological districts has increased yearly, and studies show that the students regularly perform better on standardized tests than those who don’t take part in vocational classes.
“It’s because they have to apply that knowledge to what they’re doing,” said Dan Kelleher, who teaches woodworking and metalworking at Pueblo. “They need a lot of math to be able to make things in here.”
But businesses complain that high school graduates lack many necessary skills that could be addressed through districts’ concentrated efforts.
“This is something we would be interested in, because it would enhance the quality and quantity of career and technical education,” said Richard Condit, senior vice president of administration at Sundt Construction. “We hire people right out of high school, so we’re a direct recipient of career and technical education programs.”
Some Pueblo students also say a technology district would help them.
“Our equipment is pretty good, but our drills are kind of broken,” senior Richard Cor-dero, said, speaking of the tools in Kelleher’s class. “Sometimes you have to stop what you’re doing because they don’t work.”
Besides getting the money to replace equipment, Cordero, 18, said students in different school districts could pool resources.
“They can teach us what they know,” he said. “There wouldn’t be any of the normal competition between the schools.”
But for all the enthusiasm and support behind a Pima County technology district, officials are worried that the measure could fail. Some districts already are planning override and bond elections for the November ballot.
“They’re worried about having another (measure) in November,” said Vaughn Croft, senior program coordinator at the Pima County School Superintendent’s Office.
“They’re afraid that if they ask for a JTED, they’ll be asking for too much money.”
If you go
A discussion of the Joint Technological Education District will take place at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave. For more information, call 670-0055.
Contact reporter Jeff Commings at 573-4191 or at jcommings@azstarnet.com.
