25 years of helping students refine skills
Today, 823 students - juniors and seniors only - come and go daily, splitting days between their home high school and the center. Most ride school buses, coming from as far as La Center and Ridgefield and east Portland's Parkrose School District, for three-hour shifts.
Class lectures, hands-on training in labs packed with sophisticated and often-donated equipment, and valuable apprenticeship service with local businesses give students a shot at professional certification, early college credits and a huge employment edge.
The evolving programs are a long way from some outdated view of "vo-tech" as a preserve for underachievers not likely to go to college. Biomedical science, criminal justice and legal medical training are among current options.
Top News
Guest Column: Students' success begins in the belief system
6/30/2008An extraordinary thing happened last month in Granger, a small, impoverished town in the Yakima Valley where most adults and many children work in the fields cutting asparagus, picking cherries and sorting apples. More than 90 percent of the Class of 2008 -- almost all of whom are low-income -- graduated from high school on time. Another couple of students will be graduating this summer.
