Valerie Lott is the principal of Shenandoah High School, Eldorado, CA. It is a Big Picture School with 130 students, started in 2002. Here is an overview: Download Shenandoah.pdf .
And, here are the rough notes from the our conversation which started with how they get students to their internships since they are in a rural area and then proceeded randomly through other parts of the program. The most exciting part of the conversation was hearing what students are doing with their internships and community service work.
NOTES: Bought vans to transport students to internships – 2x week … leave school at 8:30 pick up at 1 to return to school … no classes those days. Come to school in morning. Last year 100%; now 75% in internships because the LTI coordinator had to leave due to a death in family.
Important: Teach business environment training – started using materials from ROP, now JA materials. Deal with issues in work place. Mock interviews. Helped equip the students for their internships and eliminated some problems about how students interact in the workplace.
