An industrial-strength metal door opens to a clanging cacophony.

Students in smudged coveralls and protective goggles walk past a huge, sandwich board-sized metal ace of spades – the calling card of the welding department at the West Sound Technical Skills Center in Bremerton.

“(The classes here) are really hands-on and are great if you don’t like book learning, but are a ‘kinesthetic’ learner,” says J.J. Johnson, a Bainbridge High School senior who attends the center’s precision machinery program.

Johnson’s classmate, BHS senior Matt Reese, shows off what looks like a two-foot long smooth metal pole with clean-edged gouging and bands. It’s a camshaft handle he is making in class to help him rebuild a truck engine.

“These are skills that can benefit you whether you go onto higher education or not,” said Katherin Carr, Skills Center director. “These are core skills you can take with you to any setting.”

While it’s no secret that Bainbridge High School prepares its students well for postsecondary academics, less known are the vocational programs available to students who plan to enter a technical school or the workforce.

Of the 1,385 full-time equivalent students at BHS, 136 are enrolled in vocational classes that are regularly full.

“Voc-ed” can expose students to new ideas or simply better serve students who learn better away from a desk, the program’s supporters say.

For a few, that means making the 45-minute trip to the Bremerton skills center each day; on-campus, BHS students can choose from more than 20 vocational classes, now called Career and Technical Education programs. Courses range from photography to computer networking to construction trades.

“You use everything you learn,” said Nick Johansson, a BHS senior. “There’s a good balance of class and hands-on work. You learn a little, and then see how to apply it, which reinforces what you learned.”

ON CAMPUS…

The photography course at BHS is a good measure of the popularity of vocational classes; this year, 400 students applied for the 305 spots available. The 95 unlucky ones ended up on a waiting list or will try to take the course again next year.

During a recent class, about 30 students were busy on projects. One student asked instructor Linda Holsman whether a rough border would work on her picture; others worked with enlargers in a darkroom. But the class goes beyond learning how to take and develop pictures.

“In other art classes, you learn about depth and line,” said BHS junior Peter Lucier. “In photography, you put your own eye behind the lens and it makes you think of different ways to look at something – (trying) this level, this light, this film.

“It’s like things were always there before, but now I can see them as beautiful.”

The Web Team class taught by Sean Eaton maintains the Bainbridge Island School District’s website. Senior Justin Parker has taken nearly every business education course at BHS and for the last year, has been an assistant instructor in web design as independent study.

For Parker, part of the value of his experiences is “working with different people and understanding how to accommodate different tastes.” He cites a web class where he played a “client” and asked students to come up with a design to suit his needs.

He and fellow seniors Nick Breslin and Marty Sousa took advantage of what they learned to create their own web design company. The company, h-lab.net, has customers including Cafe Nola, among others.

In recent years, BHS has developed classes to respond to changing technology in all industries.

The IT program offers exploratory courses such as the basics of Microsoft Office, but also has preparatory-level classes that position students for industry-recognized certification such as Cisco Certified Network Associate or the Microsoft Office User Specialist.

“CTE has evolved into a highly technical area,” said Mike Anderson, CTE Director at BHS, “and we will continue to tie to industry standards and certification, so that students can get a job out of high school if they want.”

…AND OFF

BHS students committed to vocational study can also take advantage of classes at the West Sound Technical Skills Center in Bremerton, which serves all of Kitsap County’s school districts.

By pooling interested students together, even courses that require expensive equipment and facilities are possible. The culinary arts program there boasts a full-sized professional kitchen with walk-in freezers, and even its own professionally decorated “Three Seasons” restaurant for paying customers.

A two-year-old Precision Machining and Manufacturing department was made possible by the donation of a quarter-million dollars worth of equipment submarines decommissioned by the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Maintenance and materials for the course alone is about $10,000 a year, more than half of the annual federal money a high school might receive to support all of its CTE classes.

Funded by the state like a high school, the Skills Center only costs participating schools an insurance fee to send students there for classes every morning.

But going to the center is not a way to get out of school. On the first day of class, instructor Bob Ramirez tells students, “I’m going to run this class like a business. I am your boss, but instead of a paycheck, you get a grade. If you don’t meet my minimum requirements as your boss-slash-teacher, you’re not going to get a good grade.”

Students who are going to be absent from class must call in, just as they would for a real job.

Ramirez, who became an instructor after a 36-year career at the shipyard, places emphasis on developing “employability”: good attendance, showing up promptly, working well with others, and “staying on task.” He also lets students plan their own projects, to develop “ownership” in their work.

“For the most part, kids have reacted well to the standards I set,” Ramirez said. “I have had kids that meet or exceed that standard, so each year I set the standard a little higher.”

THE FUTURE

In keeping with the real world focus of vocational education, many classes earn credit at Olympic College.

And offerings are continually updated with the help of local professionals, who provide information about industry trends and in-demand skills. Pete Saloutos and Crystal Moore, both professional photographers on Bainbridge, have helped Holsman’s program select new equipment.

Mike Anderson, CTE director at BHS, says there is enough demand to expand the high school’s vocational programs. But for a relatively small school, maintaining a full slate of courses is challenging; three departments are entirely run by one teacher.

Space is also an issue. Anderson says while there is demand for another class or two in the Family and Consumer Science program of food, fashion, childcare and related classes, there simply is not enough classroom space or teachers.

Unlike a basic education class like English or math, CTE class size is limited by safety. A construction trades class uses saws and other machinery, and a culinary class uses knives and hot stoves, so classes must be small enough for adequate supervision by instructors.

“Sometimes there is demand and classroom space for another part-time instructor, but CTE teachers can be difficult to find,” Anderson said. “A CTE teacher must have years of industry experience and certification. These are not ‘off the college rack’-type jobs that you could find for, say, English.”

Looking to the future development of the program, Bainbridge Island School Superintendent Ken Crawford says that, as the school district prepares for a bond measure at a future date, it will be an appropriate time to survey students to determine future directions and facilities needs.

“We always want to remain current and contemporary with student interests, and never assume that what we have in place is necessarily meeting their needs,” Crawford said.