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Jan. 17, 2001 Guest Column Now that the holidays are over, it may be possible to start thinking about some important topics, such as, "What is the fate of the Technical School in Montezuma County?" In December there was a forum orchestrated by Rep. Mark Larson of Cortez and hosted by Fort Lewis College in Durango. In attendance at that open meeting were Tim Foster, executive di-rector of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education; Joe May, president of Community Colleges of Colorado; Kendall Blanchard, Fort Lewis College president; Mike Davis, Pueblo Community College president; Rep. Kay Alexander, Sen. Jim Isgar and other dignitaries. Rep. Larson told me that the forum was held in Durango rather than Cortez (where the Technical School is located) because Fort Lewis agreed to host it. To the best of my knowledge, no institution in Cortez was asked if they would host the forum. I believe that the fate of technical education in Southwest Colorado is extremely important. One editorial and one article were in each of the local papers. Not even one letter to the editor. I suppose that one class on pornography at FLC is more important to the literate population of Southwest Colorado. Those of you who have attended the Technical School and those of you who have hired their graduates understand that the delivery system for technical training in a tech school is different than the delivery system used in the community colleges. If you believe that education methods used by the tech schools are doing the job of meeting the demands of industry for competent workers, then you need to let your state legislators and local school officials know. Montezuma County residents, you passed the bond issue to build the Tech School facilities in Montezuma County and have had students in high-school-level technical classes, as well as post-secondary students. What direction do you want your investment to go? La Plata and Archuleta county residents, your school boards were asked to join this venture in the late 1960s. At that time, the plan was to have one campus in Montezuma County and one in La Plata County. Only the Mancos, Cortez and Dolores school districts chose to put money into the project and passed the bond issue by a margin of 2 to 1 in all three districts. After the completion of the first campus buildings in the early ’70s, officials at the Tech School approached school officials in La Plata and Archuleta counties on the possibilities of a campus in La Plata County. The districts were unwilling to put up the money for facilities and, because Colorado does not fund buildings for vocational education, as it does for community colleges and four-year colleges, no facilities were built. The Tech School has taken responsibility for delivering classes throughout Southwest Colorado. Off-campus classes have included a full-time LPN program, nurse-aide classes as needed, and hotel/motel management, back kitchen help and prep chef, in conjunction with the Durango Hotel-motel Association. Night classes held in Durango, Bayfield, Ignacio, Pagosa Springs and Dove Creek high-school facilities include welding, auto, farm and ranch management, young farmer, building trades, cabinetmaking and a variety of secretarial and accounting classes. Programs developed and delivered on location to the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes have been beadwork, heavy equipment operation, equipment maintenance, nurse aide and house construction. Training programs have been held for workers in companies that were starting up or expanding and exporting goods out of state. These programs were developed in conjunction with the companies and funded by the governor’s economic-development monies. A few of the companies involved were Rocky Mountain Chocolate, Bushnell, Durango Threadworks and Columbia Chrome. To the best of my knowledge, in the past 30 years the school has never failed to offer a requested class if the need was presented, and if facilities and a qualified instructor were available. Every year the school does follow-up studies on its graduates and surveys the industries’ hiring. This information is used by each program advisory committee to update the curriculum in order to meet the needs of industry. In 1987, surveys showed that companies employing students were very happy with the quality, with the exception of electronics firms and health-care providers. Those surveys showed that these firms preferred their entry-level workers have an associate degree because of the demand for paperwork. This was when the Tech School officials invited PCC in and modified programs so that those students who desired could earn an associate degree by taking classes from both institutions on the same campus. I would encourage all of you to give these issues some thought. Get involved with advisory committees, school boards and other groups with an interest in this topic. Above all, contact your state representatives and senators. The 50 percent of high-school graduates who go on to college are well taken care of in Colorado. What about the other half of the class? Many of those students have plenty of academic ability, however, choose not to continue in academic education. We need these talented individuals in skilled technical areas. I grew up in Durango and have lived in Mancos for the past 38 years. It deeply concerns me when I see good projects go down the drain or go to Farmington because Durango and Cortez can’t get over petty rivalry. Let’s do something good for the people and businesses in Southwest Colorado. Consider a statement made by a former U.S. Commissioner of Education: "The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water." Dominic Aspromonte is a retired administrator from San Juan Technical School. |
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Journal. All rights reserved. |
