Early college, vocational classes are for students ready to move on

By Elizabeth Celms
Mercer lsland Reporter

Kyle Connor has always loved to cook. Since he was old enough to reach over a counter, the Mercer Island High School senior has been fascinated with what goes on in the kitchen. Today, Connor’s passion for food has found a new environment: the classroom.

At noon every weekday, Connor drives from MIHS to Newport High School for a course in culinary arts. The student brings a professional chef’s hat, a starched white jacket and his own creativity.

Twenty minutes into class, Connor is tossing spices over the stove. A detailed recipe, in place of a textbook, at his side.

The road less taken

The Northeast Vocational Area Cooperative (NEVAC) is an off-campus program that offers vocational courses such as sports medicine, computer animation, carpentry, cosmetology and the culinary arts for high school and college credit.

Through NEVAC, students have the opportunity to study subjects unavailable in their high school curriculum.

Oftentimes, these classes center on crafts and apprenticeships. Decades ago, Mercer Island offered shop and home economics. Today, if students want to explore these areas, they can do so through NEVAC.

“As we get more focused on the WASL and state graduation requirements, there is less emphasis on career and tech prep when the reality is some sort of post-high school training is a really great idea,” said Pamela Darling, NEVAC program director. “University is not the best route for all kids.”

Although many Island parents would disagree, there are a handful of students — bright students — who feel that Darling has a point.

“I think creative learning is just as important as academic learning because it gets you to think in different ways,” said Brynn Hyman, another MIHS senior enrolled in NEVAC’s culinary program at Newport.

Hyman has already applied to two culinary schools — the Culinary Institute of America in New York and Johnson & Wales College of Culinary Arts in Providence, R.I. — where she hopes to focus on catering and restaurant management. “I just love thinking about menus and preparing them,” the senior said.

Both Hyman and Connor — and a third Islander, Samantha Borselli — have the same culinary arts instructor, Tracy Green, at Newport although they attend different classes.

Hyman and Borselli wake up before sunrise to attend the 7:30 a.m. class, while Connor hits the I-90 East Channel Bridge just after lunch. Although the class is paid for by MIHS, students must arrange their own transportation.

Getting a head start

Green takes her culinary course very seriously and expects her students to do the same. It’s not just a class, she pointed out, it’s a responsibility.

“Maturity is a real issue. It takes a student that really wants to be here. Our work is done in the classroom and it’s just like a job — you’ve got to be there,” the culinary instructor said.

According to MIHS school counselor Susie Brown, the students who study off campus often stand out in their maturity.

“They tend to be ‘old souls,’” Brown said. “They’re done with high school and ready to explore other things.”

Tara Fulp, who is taking a Running Start statistics class through Bellevue Community College (BCC), agrees.

“Most of the people I know in Running Start don’t want to be at the high school,” she said, referring to the state-wide program that allows high school students to enroll in college courses. “They’re over high school and want to enter the college world.”

Most of Fulp’s Running Start peers are taking full-schedule college classes, she said. Taking just one class at BCC, like she does, is rare, Fulp added. The district’s enrollment numbers validate this observation.

According to a report completed by the Mercer Island School Board, 90 students took classes outside MIHS during the first semester of the 2006-2007 school year. That number increased by 50 students in the second semester, for a total of 140 students out of the 1,418 enrolled at MIHS.

Math students dominated this demographic. Of the 90 students studying off campus during first semester, 76 were registered for math (94 in semester two).

In comparison, six students studied world languages, four took English, three took history and one student opted for a science class outside the MIHS curriculum.

“These numbers are incredibly high,” School Board President Leslie Ferrell remarked after reviewing the numbers last October.

From an administrative perspective, the burgeoning off-campus enrollment poses a challenge. Since the district pays for all Running Start students, the precipitous growth of this program is leaving administrators with a budgetary headache.

“The most commonly articulated concern that we get from high schools is about lost revenue from Running Start,” said Brian Jefferies, graduation policy director at the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).

According to Jefferies, if a student is enrolled full-time in the Running Start program, more than 90 percent of the $4,500 state funds that MISD earns for that student will go to the host college.

“High schools pay a rate based on the number of credits taken at the college,” he explained. “So the cost is significantly less if the student is just taking one [Running Start] class.”

But where the district loses money, parents gain.

“College is so much more expensive today, so this program [Running Start] has bloomed everywhere. Students can transfer from high school and save parents two years worth of university tuition,” Brown said.

MIHS students, on the other hand, have their own reasons for Running Start.

“At BCC, one quarter of math counts as a year’s worth at MIHS,” said Fulp. “I’m not that good at math, so I’d rather take [statistics] at BCC over taking it at the high school because it’s faster.”

Other students are simply eager to earn a degree and jump into the “real world.”

And then there are those who are drawn by their creative spirit. Students like Connor, who could not follow their bliss at MIHS.

“A lot of our students in Running Start and NEVAC are very creative and ready to get out of the high school’s more restrictive curriculum,” Brown said.

She added that, although parents and administrators are often hesitant to break from MIHS academic rubric, once they see students fulfilling their potential outside campus walls — whether culinary instruction at Newport High School or statistics math at BCC — the feelings change.

“Parents start to see their kids bloom where they once struggled,” Brown said. “They often find their place in the world.”