The Corporate Assessment was conducted during the week of October 5-9. During this time the corporate assessment team, made up of corporate staff from both Serrato Corporation and their sub-contractor, Horizons Youth Services, spent a week going over all center programs and procedures. The center will receive a full re-port early in November, but the assessment team was overall pleased with the progress the center has made.

Throughout the week, several members of the assessment team commented on the openness and friendliness of students. Students generally were dress code compliant, eager and willing to share their experiences with others. In student focus groups when asked “What is your favorite thing about the Cleveland Job Corps Center (CJCC), every student named a staff member or members, particularly instructional staff. Students quantified that by giving their reasons why. The answers included that staff offered encouragement, correction, advice and furthermore, those efforts don’t stop when the training day ends. Students spoke about staff being available “after hours” for phone calls, and to offer advice when students needed them most.

We are fortunate to have a positive center culture. So much so, that during the assessment we had highlights about the meaningfulness of positive staff and student relation-ships. Culture is all about relationships. Positive student culture is a direct result of positive student/staff relationships.

I often refer to CJCC staff as family, and that is the feeling here, but like most families we have some work to do. One of the areas is in the value we place on the instructional day. We must work with students to ensure we emphasize the value of instructional time by increasing the amount of time spent in class by reducing absences; both excused and unexcused. We must adopt the belief, and live the belief that being in class is the most important place for a student to be. We can’t just say it; we must carry through. Students will hear what you say, but they believe what you do. We must “put action to our faith.” By tightening up these areas, I believe Cleveland will be a top 20 center.

We have the staff resources. We have the positive student culture, as Mr. Serrato would say, “What are you waiting for? Let’s do it!”

Cheryll Yowell