Mid-County and Superior Community School students are learning a variety of vocational skills and lessons this year. Led by teacher Angel Olea, lessons incorporate a variety of building trades including planning, grading, concrete, framing, irrigation, and electricity. Lessons will be expanded to many other occupations thanks to a curriculum purchased by the school this fall.
Students visiting the Mid-County Community School this fall are working on a variety of projects in preparation for a series of new buildings. Last week, students operated small tractors to move dirt from one side of the campus to new building sites, while others used diaphragm compactors to level the soil. Next week, the students will build a hutch for their tools. This is the first of her four new buildings. Following the hut, students will create an outdoor coffee vending area to serve employees working at the adjacent TCOE Doe Avenue site, and install two new greenhouses.
Olea started career technical education (CTE) classes at both sites in January 2022 and spent the last six years working as a truant in Mid-County and then as a CTE teacher at a juvenile detention center. Joseph, his senior year student at Mid-County, appreciates his new curriculum. This was all new to most of us. It’s amazing what we learned,” he said. “Mr. Olea was also great. He really cares about us.”
Last spring, mid-county students cleared an area of the site that shares a fence line with the Doe Avenue complex. With Olea’s guidance, the students assembled a variety of beautiful ground and stilt garden containers. Students planted a variety of vegetables and received hands-on lessons in plant science and irrigation system design along the way. “Once the planter was finished, we asked his TCOE employees and parents in the neighborhood if they could buy a container or if they would build one,” says Matt, who is a lead teacher at Mid-County. Mr. Lee smiled.
Lee reports that design work will strengthen the construction industry. “Mr. Orea is already teaching students how to read and draw drawings,” he said. “We hope to be using Tinkercad to do our own designs in the near future, which will also be integrated with our new 3D printer for him.”
Impressed by the activities of the students last spring, Tulare County Superintendent Tim Hyer and Special Services Administrators Tammy Bradford and Sarah Hamilton opened the Redwood Center Café, which operates in the Mooney administration building. Encourages the idea of Mid-County students developing similar coffee and snack service businesses. This fall, Lee expects her new MCCafé to open, offering coffee and pastries freshly baked in her Mid-County kitchen. On certain mornings each week, items are available for purchase by the employee and visitors to her Doe Avenue Complex.
Community school teachers supplement Olea’s construction lessons with an online/hands-on hybrid career curriculum known as Paxton/Patterson College & Career Ready Labs. The Paxton/Patterson lab, originally used in partnership with the Tulare County Probation Service for students serving in juvenile detention facilities, includes units on careers in health sciences and construction. Olea reports that the curriculum can be used on rainy winter days, and each unit takes about 10 to 15 weeks. For each deal, the lab includes information about additional training students may need to obtain and where you can find it in Tulare County. Senior Matt, who enjoys driving tractors and building garden beds, is looking forward to the Paxton/Patterson lab on plumbing. “Plumbing is an area that has caught my attention,” he said. “Plumbing and electricity too.”
“Our goal in introducing CTE to community school students is to generate interest,” says Lee. “We want these students and those we serve in the future to see the potential it takes to do what they love and make a good living out of it.
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