PREPARE KIDS FOR CAREERS PARENTS WANT MORE JOB TRAINING, INVOLVEMENT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

VALENCIA - Santa Clarita residents want vocational training and more parent involvement at school to be included in a master plan that could guide the future of education in the state.

About 100 residents Thursday night offered their opinions to better education while listening to a panel of local educators and master plan consultants discuss the rough draft of the plan that has been in development for two years.

Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, called the town hall meeting at College of the Canyons to encourage discussion and evaluate recommendations of the plan.

The Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan began rewriting the state's 40-year-old plan for higher education to address the needs of students throughout their entire educational experience.

The new plan will include education policy recommendations for all grades, kindergarten through college, in an attempt to establish a comprehensive, long-term plan for California's education system.

The committee has completed its research and will be submitting the master plan to the Legislature in August.

But before it's turned in, Runner wanted to hear from the public.

Residents urged the panel to recognize and address the need for more vocational training in response to the plan's outline for schools to have adequate college preparatory classes for all students.

``The plan misses the point that completely academic college preparation leaves a majority of the students out of the loop,'' said Phil Hartley, assistant superintendent and vice president of instruction and student services at College of the Canyons. ``It's a lofty goal to prepare all students for college, and it's a disservice to a majority of the students in high school.''

School administrators emphasized that college preparation needs to include career preparation programs whereby school districts establish relationships with local businesses to provide career pathways for those who choose to enter the work force.

``It devalues the kid who's not going to college,'' said Ed Colley, a Valencia High School teacher. ``Life skills are the important thing, not going to college. That's not the goal.''

Paul Priesz, the principal at Valencia High, lauded the benefits of the school's school-to-career program, while explaining that college is a means to an end, whereas the master plan defines it as a goal.

``I urge the committee to put school-to-career back into the document,'' Priesz said.

Students who had reaped the benefits of the program also spoke in support of increased vocational training.

``Because of the grants the program received, we used professional equipment, and the professionals I've seen were saying `wow' at what I've experienced,'' said Valencia High student Branden Morris, who is involved in the video production classes.

Others stressed that the master plan should address the need to support colleges in establishing relationships with other institutions and local businesses, as College of the Canyons has done with its nursing partnership with Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital and with teaching programs. This will allow people to get on-the-job training before entering a particular career.

``Think of ways at state legislature and state government to encourage business and industry to increase their degree of involvement with school,'' Hartley said, suggesting incentive programs that would attract businesses to develop partnerships with local districts.

Parents also complained that while they are encouraged to get involved in their child's school in elementary and junior high schools, their involvement is discouraged at the high school level.

``It was unacceptable for a parent to go in and question what's going on,'' said Steve Herskovitz, who was afraid his child would face reprisal by administrators if he spoke up. ``Parents are afraid to speak up. If you speak up, you're labeled a troublemaker. We need to encourage parents to get involved.''

One parent complained that the master plan needed to focus on special education for better and earlier developmental screenings because early intervention would require less of the costly special education resources at school in the long run.

Other issues raised by concerned residents was a need to attract highly qualified teachers and to retain them.