Roseville Adult School celebrates 100 years

On June 9, nearly 100 Roseville Adult School and Roseville Joint Union High School District staff, family and friends gathered at the Branstetter Street campus to celebrate 100 years of changing and improving the lives of countless students in the community. Former principals gave tributes to the faculty who have welcomed and guided students into a better future. Roseville Adult School opened its doors in 1921 in response to Southern Pacific Railroad's request for night classes for its employees. That was the start of a 100-year journey of changing lives and opening doors of success. On June 9, 1921, the school board approved a request by Southern Pacific Railroad for night classes with the goal of educating their employees in wireless communications. The times required innovative educational opportunities for their employees and in turn the company to remain competitive. Nothing much has changed in that regard. Roseville Adult School continues to be involved in providing students with relevant educational opportunities that will allow them to compete in our ever-changing world. Thousands of students who have entered Roseville Adult School's doors over the last 100 years have done so for many reasons: to learn English or to become proud citizens of the United States; to earn a GED or a high school diploma; to build computer, vocational and job readiness skills; or to be an integral part of their child's experience in early childhood education. While their reasons for attending Roseville Adult School vary, the driving force behind each person's commitment to attend school as an adult has remained constant: to create opportunities and to better themselves for their futures. Adult education has a 100 year long and rich history in the Roseville Joint Union High School District, beginning with classes in wireless communication and growing rapidly to include programs that offered language acquisition skills, citizenship classes and completion of high school diploma programs. Because of the rapid growth and need that became apparent in the community, classes were held in a variety of places, including every Roseville Joint Union High School District school, feeder elementary schools, community centers, and residential meeting halls to meet the needs of the community. True to its original nature, Roseville Adult School continues to partner with community members, schools and businesses in its single-minded focus on serving the needs of adult learners in Placer County. The long-standing programs continuing to offer opportunities to the community are: * English as a Second Language (ESL) - offers classes from beginner to advanced English language acquisition and involves listening, speaking, reading and writing in an integrated approach to encourage a positive natural language development. * Citizenship - The citizenship class includes U.S. government and history, civics, and USCIS interview practice and preparation. The citizenship teacher is an active member of USCIS Stakeholder meetings in order to match the curricula to the current USCIS citizenship requirements. * GED preparation - The GED prep class provides students with assessment and preparation in order to pass the battery of tests for HiSET and GED. The classes are in both English and Spanish with daytime and night classes to fit varying schedules.* Pearson Vue Testing Center - Roseville Adult School became a computer-based Pearson Vue testing center to provide opportunities for students to test for the GED and HiSet high school equivalency exams. Career and professional certification examinations are also available to the community. * High school diploma - For students who want to earn a high school diploma, the high school diploma program offers state and district-required courses across all the disciplines required to be completed to earn a high school diploma in California as the Roseville Adult School became WASC accredited in 2012. In 2020, 60 students completed their high school diploma.* RPEP - Parent Education has been a part of Roseville Adult School for the last 48 years at the Roseville Parent Education Preschool. Its goal is to make available a play-based preschool in a co-op environment staffed by credentialed teachers and parent volunteers. Besides an actual working preschool, monthly classes are available to parents, such as the Importance of play, the value of sleep and how to connect with your child. * Job readiness - Roseville Adult School in partnership with Placer County Health and Human Services offers job readiness classes. Anyone in the community interested in updating employment skills and employment preparation can attend this open-entry class. The class offers completion of an employment portfolio, including sample master application, resume, cover letter, thank you letter, reference sheet, skills assessment, and completion of other activities including short/long term goals, skills and interview practice.* Computer classes - The Roseville Adult School teaches valuable computer skills, for free, that help students learn the basics, plus much more. Classes include computer phobia, computer basics, MS Office, Excel and Google applications.In recent years, Roseville Adult School has continued to build upon the core program by offering career-training opportunities that provide industry-recognized certifications for career path jobs in automotive services, allied health and information technology. It has collaborated with Sierra College and local businesses, including Bill McAnally Racing and Napa AutoCare Centers for the automotive technician levels 1 and 2 program. For its Certified Medical Assistant program, it established contracts with local medical institutions, including Kaiser and Sutter Medical Centers to provide externships for students to meet the requirements for the certification and licensing of medical assistants in California. New Allied Health programs became available in 2020 including the most recent medical program, Phlebotomy Technician. The Information Technology pathway gives students several certificate training options including Comp TIA A+, Computer Networking and Cybersecurity programs. The school designs career path programs to result in good paying, professional job opportunities for the students at a fraction of the cost of private programs. Since 2018, more than 200 students have completed Career Technical Certificate Programs. Roseville Adult School provides its own funding and will continue to operate with the ultimate goal of offering real life opportunities and pathways for students to reach their educational, personal and career goals. For more information, visit http://ras.rjuhsd.us or call the office at 916-782-3952. Monique Johnson is a Roseville Adult School faculty member.