CITEA April Newsletter

Christine Linné, current CITEA Vice President

Gracious and generous mentors make a difference. 2005 was the second year Pioneer Valley High School was open and it was my first year teaching. I’d worked in the agriculture industry and then went back to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for my teaching credential. The summer before I started teaching, I attended the fantastic Briggs and Stratton training, to prepare me to teach Small Gas Engines. This is where I found out about CITEA.

Gracious and generous mentors make a difference. 2005 was the second year Pioneer Valley High School was open and it was my first year teaching. I’d worked in the agriculture industry and then went back to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for my teaching credential. The summer before I started teaching, I attended the fantastic Briggs and Stratton training, to prepare me to teach Small Gas Engines. This is where I found out about CITEA.

When I walked into my classroom a few days before school started, there was a pallet of Briggs and Stratton engines. There were no tools, no desks and no books. My Department Chair gave me office supplies to get me started. While I was in a new teacher training, a veteran teacher swooped in with a few books, repair manuals, lesson plans, tools and cut away engines to get me started. I am grateful for the mentoring of some very supportive people, welcoming me to the teaching profession. The motto for CITEA is really true, “Teachers Helping Teachers.”

Since then the Small Gas Engines program has grown. I currently teach this all day with 3 sections of the introductory course and 2 sections of the advanced course. We brought SkillsUSA to our campus and I now have a Power Equipment Technology team.

When not working, I enjoy my little ranch where I occasionally breed AKC champion Great Pyrenees dogs, train my Border Collies in herding and raise sheep.

Safety Tip for April

MACHINE SHOP ENVIRONMENT AND WORK SAFETY STANDARDS
At the high school or community college level it has been, in the past, very difficult to find, in one place, good design information for building or renovating a machine shop. The architect and construction company contracted for the job often lack the technical information needed to design and build a shop. It is most important for the architect and construction company to create a safe environment for student instruction with the tools/equipment for students performing required program activities safely.

Often, the on site instructor who is to teach the program becomes the “go to person” for answers to critical design and safety problems. That instructor, as good as he or she is, usually does not have all of the answers.

Questions about OSHA standards, California Department of Education Standards, local and state codes or the many industry standards related to safe environment working provisions in a public school machine shop are hard to find in one place.

The CITEA Board has created, and is refining, a tool to assist instructors and administrators in making design decisions for a machine shop renovation. This tool can also be used for design decisions related to new shop construction. At the present time there are four Key areas for shop design considerations in this particular document. They are:

1. Equipment/Machine,
2. Facility,
3. Program
4. Safety.

These four broad areas are further divided up into 104 sections which are used to compare the machine shop in question to CDE, state and local building codes and OSHA safety standards. There will be a session on Saturday, June 22, 2024 at the MTTA/CITEA CALPOLY Conference for teachers to evaluate Shop Checkup and suggest changes for future implementation.

If you would like to take part in this important session your participation is encouraged.

Teaching Tip for April

Your best ally is a good advisory board. Reach out to Industry partners in your community. They are some of your best advocates and a great connection to help keep your program relevant. They often are just as interested in hiring your students as you are in helping students develop important skills.

Scholarships - Stay tuned for the next application cycle, which begins July 1, 2024

Awards and Grants - Awarded at the Fall State Conference,
October 25-26, 2024
Apply now: https://citea.org/membership/grants-and-scholarships/

Application deadline is August 1, 2024

Outstanding High School Program Award
CITEA Administrator of the Year Award
CITEA Industry Person of the Year Award
CITEA Person of the Year Award
Dr. Kenneth Phillips’ Distinguished Service Award
Outstanding Community College/University Program Award
Outstanding Middle School Program Award

Events
MTTA/CITEA Summer Conference Thursday June 20 through Saturday June 22, 2024
Register now: https://citea.org/annual-mtta-citea-conference/

Thursday - Industry tours
Friday - all day sessions at Cal Poly and other locations

Woodworking - Cal Poly
Welding - Cal Poly
Small Gas Engines and Electrical Circuits -Pioneer Valley High School, Santa Maria
Manufacturing and Marketing -Cal Poly
Machine Shop - Morro Bay High School
Shop Skills for STEM/STEAM - Cal Poly
Middle School Shop - Laguna Middle School, San Luis Obispo Saturday - a variety of sessions at Cal Poly

CALL FOR PRESENTERS! Please consider sharing your best practices/projects as a presenter with your own presentation/workshop at the Summer Conference. If interested, please submit this application: https://bit.ly/3TYbxSV

SkillsUSA California State Conference
April 4-7, 2024, Ontario Convention Center CITEA was there!

CITEA Fall State Conference
October 25-26, 2024 Kern ROC Career Technical Education Center, Bakersfield

Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Summer Programs in Los Angeles County: https://hftforschools.org/los-angeles-county/summer-programs/ A Good Read: