Seamless Education Associates, Inc.

The following story is reprinted from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Job skills center raises bar
State hopes to repeat Coweta's success

December 3, 2004

by BRIDGET GUTIERREZ
Staff

Undrea Rawls, his skinny frame dwarfed by an oversize athletic jersey, donned a headset and took his place between two cameras in front of the stage.

"OK," he said, looking toward his classmates seated on a plaid couch. "Quiet on the set. Five, four . . . "

"Hold it! Hold it!" teacher Kevin Pullen said. "Folks, when your floor director calls 'Quiet on the set' . . . it's gotta be pin-drop quiet.

"And son," he said, turning to Rawls. "You gotta break your mama's china with it!"

Pullen's broadcast class at the Central Educational Center in Newnan is filled with homespun advice intended to teach job-ready skills -- like how to be assertive -- to high school students such as Rawls.

Since the school opened in 2000, hundreds of educators, politicians and businessmen have descended on the campus about 40 miles southwest of downtown Atlanta to learn how to better prepare students for work. Georgia officials have asked the publicly funded charter school to replicate its model so other communities might find the same benefits of combining academic classes with hands-on technical training.

Central Educational Center officials will use a $200,000 grant this school year and next to help create two charter schools in other counties, public schools that operate independently from school systems in exchange for developing more innovative programs.

"We're here to ensure that there's a viable 21st-century work force for this community," said Russ Moore, the school's CEO. "It's fairly unique to have a school to have that as its mission. But this is what we're about. We're not about getting people to college or getting people educated in English, science and math. . . . We teach academic classes here, but it's a little bit different."

Students shuttle in and out of the campus, where they can take courses that are not offered at their regular schools. This fall, about 870 students from Coweta County's three high schools split time between their home campus and the charter school. As many as 122 high school and technical college classes, from computer animation to welding, are taught there each day.

"It's good because I know I have something to fall back on when I get out of school," said Shantrel Dean, a junior from East Coweta High School who is taking a course in health occupations in the hopes of becoming a medical assistant.

From learning to dress a hospital bed properly to understanding safety procedures at a manufacturing plant, students are picking up skills they can apply in life after school. In every class, students receive a grade for "work ethic," and they're often called upon to produce projects for clients such as building a shed or taping a cable talk show.

Melissa Porter, a Newnan High School junior enrolled in Pullen's broadcast class, helps produce "CEC TV," a morning news program aired in the county's high schools.

"I really enjoy this class," Porter said. "I'm one of the three executive producers. There's a lot of pressure calling the shots. It's fun, though."

Officials say what makes the school unique is the partnerships it has created with West Central Technical College, which offers classes on site; local businesses such as Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corp., one of Coweta County's largest employers; and the county's public school system, which donated the school's land and facilities. But the campus is also unique because it's found a way to make the curriculum relevant to both students and their potential employers.

That link from the classroom to the business world is what enticed Pullen from his job as an art teacher at East Coweta High.

Pullen still remembers the sting of a job interview after he graduated from Hampton University in Virginia with a fine arts degree. Intent on being a commercial artist, he got a "rude awakening" when he showed his portfolio at an agency only to be told that he needed to enroll in a technical school.

"I'm determined that these kids not go out of here with their heads spinning," Pullen said. "When they show their resumes . . . they're going to be honest, serious contenders."