Arts-career program would be more than just song and dance
The Kern High School District recently hosted Principal Partners Day, in which each campus invited community members to spend a day learning about their programs. My wife and I participated, and we were able to get a good look at the district’s Regional Occupational Center and Career Technical Education Center.
If you don’t know about this program, you should. It’s designed for students wanting career training in fields that do not necessarily require college, although a large number do eventually spend some time there. Most students spend three hours per day on their home campuses and three hours at the ROC campus. The present ROC campus on South Mt. Vernon is impressive, and next year there will be another campus in the southwest part of the city.
Once it opens, the campuses will have about 2,600 students in 36 programs in everything from Ag/Diesel Mechanics and Dental Assistant to Sports Medicine and Veterinary Technology.
In light of the assault by our state government on the main industries supporting our local economy, these kinds of programs can help diversify the job opportunities in Kern County and give our young people a future here. I’d like to suggest another aspect to this approach which would serve the needs of our students and economy.
In the mid 1930s the city of Brooklyn, N.Y., created a High School of the Arts, which drew students from all the local high schools to focus on training talented young people in the skills necessary to succeed in the entertainment industry. It continues to this day and has been replicated in Chicago, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, San Francisco and elsewhere.
Bakersfield is only 100 miles from the largest entertainment industry in the world. We are so close that TV shows and movies often come here for production because we can meet their needs for locations and costs they can’t duplicate in the southland. But thus far, we are merely a location, a stage set for temporary use. The Kern High School District should expand the ROC program and create a High School for the Arts.
Some years ago there was a TV show called “Glee.” That’s what most people think of about such a school. Singers, a few dancers and musicians performing some musical numbers. At some level, that’s true. But that vision is way too small. The work opportunities in the arts and entertainment industry are huge and varied.
In addition to on-stage performers, consider the other possibilities. Camera operators, sound engineers, set designers, set builders, computer generated image specialists, lighting controllers, animators, directors, theater managers, etc. In the broader arts industry one could train in art, photography, sculpture, art installation techniques, and the business of operating an art related enterprise.
Not every student who wants to do some art also wants to make a career of it. But some do and could if they were properly trained and motivated. Using the ROC model, they would spend time on their home campuses and some at the arts program. There are already excellent faculty on our campuses who could be tapped to also teach in the programs offered to the most talented students.
The obvious location for such a program is the BHS campus. It is central. It has the most highly developed auditorium facility with multiple sized theaters. It also has an underutilized industrial arts building that would be perfect for all kinds of programs like dance, art installations, sculptural casting, set creation, etc.
Our high school district has taken huge steps in recognizing that the traditional college academic track is not for everyone. The number of ROC students that do eventually go on to take at least some college is high. But there are other students who are artistically talented and who should be given the chance to make that their future.
Here’s my modest proposal: That the Kern High School District broaden the ROC concept by creating a High School for the Arts to help our students and to help diversify our future economic security.