SCHOOL DISTRICT MAY PURSUE REGIONAL OCCUPATIONAL CENTER.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - The director of the Hart school district's career training program for the disabled has proposed the idea for a regional occupational center that would serve the career-preparation needs of all students and adults in the valley.

``We would be providing something that's not there now - there's a gap for hands-on work and it would be a good steppingstone for more advanced type training,'' said Ron Rudzinski, director of the William S. Hart Union High School District's Career Visions program.

Rudzinski plans to offer training in those fields that neither College of the Canyons nor the school district's regional occupation programs offer, forcing people to leave the valley to get that type of instruction.

``COC has quite a few courses that deal with training to get ready to go into business, manufacturing and welding, and the Hart district has ROP, where we offer 35 to 40 courses throughout the year that deal in fields like firefighting, banking, hotel occupations, food service,'' he said.

``But we are still finding a gap in some of the trade areas like basic building construction, basic manufacturing, basic assembly work and general mechanical skills, and we believe as the valley grows, it justifies the facility.''

The idea is an all-day facility that would cater mainly to disabled students during the day and residents who want to upgrade their skills in a particular field in the evenings.

Rudzinski would work with interested local businesses to determine the specific skills they would require in entry-level employees and the types of industry certification they would be looking for.

The school board approved the concept at its meeting Wednesday, and instructed Rudzinski to further develop his idea on the condition that he finds a facility at no cost or a low cost in light of the district's budget constraints.

Rudzinski has been working with county officials on the possibility of using the old Canyon Country branch library at no cost.

Nandy Mahr, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Library, said it's too early to predict an outcome, but officials with 5th District Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich's office and the county Chief Administrative Office are involved in the talks.

``If we can get this thing going, we'd have a model program,'' Rudzinski said. ``People seem to enjoy living in Santa Clarita and various people and businesses seem to be proactive in trying to have a good quality of life for the community members, and this is a program that really echoes that feeling in the community,'' said Rudzinski, who hopes to have the program in place within a year.