Front porch: Visit to Skills Center is like memory lane

In my former life I was a radio personality. Way back in 1983 I had a weekly hour-long program. I spun Top-40 favorites such as “Eye of the Tiger” and “Centerfold” and did my best to emulate a breathy, sultry radio diva. Unfortunately, I ended up sounding like an asthmatic Madonna, or Cyndi Lauper with a really bad cold.

What? You never heard my show? Well, I guess I’m not surprised, since you would have had to be in a one-mile radius of the Spokane Skills Center in north Spokane, to pick up station KSVC.

The Skills Center, operated by Spokane Public Schools, opened in 1982. Its purpose is to provide work experience that allows students leaving high school to enter the community college system with advanced placement and/or college credits, or to proceed directly to jobs in their chosen field.

My course of study was Radio/TV Broadcasting. It fulfilled a required elective credit and was my first exposure to news writing. We didn’t just play DJ. We learned to put together newscasts for radio and television. A few weeks ago, I returned to the school for a visit.

Things have changed in 25 years. I met Principal Don Howell and office manager Gail Gwynn for lunch in Alice’s Restaurant, the student-operated cafe. Each Thursday, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., the restaurant is open to the public and serves a delicious and eclectic buffet. At only $7.25 with dessert and beverage included, it’s a great buy.

According to Howell, the restaurant, like the Skills Center itself, is one of Spokane’s best-kept secrets. “It’s not an alternative school,” he stressed. “It’s an advanced career preparation center. Our motto is ‘We put education to work.’ “

After lunch, we walked through quiet hallways. Though the center hosts students from Spokane Valley, Deer Park and Cheney schools, those empty halls marked one of the biggest changes I noticed. “Enrollment is down,” Howell said. The Spokane Skills Center has borne the brunt of WASL testing. Additional graduation requirements mean students have lost a lot of flexibility in their schedules.

An administrative council consisting of the superintendents of the nine districts the school serves governs the Skills Center. They’ve been hard at work to come up with solutions to bolster enrollment.

One answer may be the partnership they’re creating with Spokane Virtual Learning, a Web-based educational project, which provides instructor-led online courses. Howell said this year they’ve developed an SVL lab on site. Students can take the online classes they need and pursue the vocational classes they want, all at the Skills Center.

The popular certified veterinary assistant class is just one example of a class students want to take. As we entered the classroom/lab, a friendly dog wandered up to sniff us. A cat meowed a greeting from a carrier. The course is a great fit for animal-loving teens interested in pursuing a career in veterinary medicine.

Down the hall, the rumble of an engine filled the collision repair technology workshop. Students milled around several cars in various states of disarray. Shiny red toolboxes lined the walls.

In the computer graphics, printing and multimedia production room, students were busy creating their own games and designing CD covers.

While it was great to watch teens putting knowledge into action, I passed on Howell’s offer to take a seat in the dental careers classroom. “I brushed at home,” I assured the eager students.

At last we reached my old classroom. The program is now called broadcast media production. The name’s not the only thing that’s changed. Gone are the turntables, archaic soundboards and cassette decks. Instructor Scott Dethlefs, a former news director for KXLY-TV, has updated the program and brought it into the digital age.

Instead of radio broadcasts, the students film video newscasts each Friday. New computers with sophisticated software fill several editing bays. According to the Skills Center Web site, students can “pick up reporting, interview and on-air skills, and learn to tell a story with pictures.”

The students have been busy editing video segments of the RAWK Final Four concert with hopes of airing it on Community Minded Television. Several of Dethlefs’ former students have gone directly to jobs in the local television market. One of them, 2003 graduate Derek Smith, is now a production manager at KXLY.

Spokane Skills Center also offers a popular summer program. So popular that many of the classes are already full despite lower numbers during the school year.

I enjoyed my blast from the past. The copywriting and news editing instruction I received 25 years ago at the Skills Center was a great introduction to journalism. And who knows? The Spokesman-Review has launched a radio project. If this print medium thing doesn’t work out for me, I may return to my radio roots. I’d better start warming up my diva voice, just in case. Stay tuned.