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Traveling to education<br>

Williams High School con-struction tech-nologies one students build a new dugout for the girl’s softball field behind the school funded by CAVIAT as a project for the class. From left are students Cesar Davalos, Mano Zabala, Travis Wright, Jose Gonzales, and Justin Sandoval, with instructor Sheldon White at background in the shed. Not shown are students Sam Donovan, Umberto Soto, and Laurence Madrid. With WHS having to unload a few of its vocational classes, students may be traveling to Flagstaff next year for the same education.

“We started about five to six weeks into the semester. The students learned excavating first, then we came and started digging it out,” said White. “We work well under pressure — we’ll get her done.”

Every ounce of work on the dugout has so far — and will continue to be — done completely by the students. The structure has an over-budget price tag of $4,000 to allow for learn-as-you-go mistakes and is funded by the Coconino Association for Vocations, Industry and Technology, or CAVIAT — a “phantom district,” as Coconino County School Superintendent Cecilia Owen puts it, geared towards sharing vocational education resources between school districts.

Construction technologies is just one of the vocational classes offered at WHS, but there used to be more.

Currently, the school also offers education in culinary arts, computer aided drafting, woodworking, automotive level-one, computers, high-tech/industrial learning in the AMITROL lab, law enforcement, business and publications.

Two of what many call the more popular classes, however — metal shop/welding and automotive level two were dropped due to funding, space constraints, and choices made five years ago, according to WHS Principal Bob Kuhn.

“It’s not the personal choice of people,” Kuhn explained. “It’s a decision that came about by mandates of state, numbers, jobs, and the price of building.”

It was five years ago that the state’s School Facilities Board deemed the old “voc ed” building unusable and provided for a new voc ed building, which opened its doors this year. Why in particular the decision was made back then to drop metal shop and automotive level two from what would become the new facility remains a mystery.

The reasons why those classes probably won’t be brought back — at least for awhile — are varied, but lack of funding, as always, is at the top of the list.

More involved automotive classes, such as levels two and three, require a large amount of funding due to the complexity of today’s cars and the higher price of parts, maintenance, tools and diagnostic equipment. At the same time, to move the existing welding equipment from the old building into the new one and create a separate area for metal shop class could fetch a price tag as high as $150,000 or more. The cost of staffing is also a factor.

“Our goal is to offer as many classes with availability to the community as possible,” Kuhn said. “And we have to follow the guidelines that are set. If I had my way, we’d offer (more classes), but you can’t, and that’s why the joint district is there.”

That joint district Kuhn referred to is CAVIAT, which got its start four years ago, modeled after other successful vocational education joint-district ventures such as EVIT, the East Valley Institute of Technology, and NAVIT, the Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology.

CAVIAT is a vocational school district encompassing the Williams, Grand Canyon, Page, Fredonia-Moccasin, and now Flagstaff Unified School Districts.

Like other districts, CAVIAT is funded based on attendance, according to Owen. For every student within its boundaries, the initial district receives an additional 50 percent of the funding that student would normally be worth.

Those monies are then used to enhance that district’s vocational education curriculum.

So what’s the advantage?

With Flagstaff hopping onboard the CAVIAT train, WHS students will now have the opportunity to be bussed in to one of the city’s three high schools and enroll in better-equipped and more varied vocational classes.

“This is such a progressive course they’ve undertaken,” said Owen, who is delighted with the opportunities Flagstaff’s membership of CAVIAT represents. “It’s just impossible in our rural districts to provide enough funding for expensive vocational programs.”

The disadvantage of traveling to Flagstaff, however, is that WHS students would need to sign up for block classes — extended periods lasting as much as 80-90 minutes — and drop another to account for the travel time back and forth.

Since students must pass AIMS to graduate, electives are first in line to be dropped. Some, however, are worried about students who need extra classes such as math intervention losing valuable class time in trade for travel.

Those students, Kuhn said, may have to enroll in zero-hour classes before or after school to make up for the lost time.

On the other hand, Doug Allan, associate for career and technical education within the FUSD, may have other plans available for students.

“We’re excited,” Allan said. “This is a big thing for us.”

He says his district’s CAVIAT membership could allow the FUSD to hold more after school, weekend or even summer school vocational classes, opening the door for availability and flexibility even wider.

Kuhn admits he is slightly concerned about the availability of class size in Flagstaff — especially since the other CAVIAT districts are in the same boat as Williams — but that since the ultimate funding and transportation details are a year or more away, exact limitations will remain unknown.


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