Byrl R. Shoemaker, director of the Division of Vocational Coaching of the State of Ohio, obtained right here up with the concept of a residential vocational school in January 1964.
Beneath the Manpower, Progress and Teaching Act of 1962, the Mahoning Valley Vocational School (MVVS) was established as the first residential vocational teaching program for troubled or “disadvantaged” Ohio boys. The varsity opened on July 29, 1964, and was located on the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna.
This method was geared in direction of boys ages 16 to 21 with cultural, tutorial, economical and/or social points. Many of the youthful males have been rejected by the Armed Forces as they’ve been emotionally immature and/or educationally unfit, or did not meet the requirements for Job Corps. Many have been moreover highschool dropouts or have been highschool graduates that did not have a salable expertise. Any boy that enrolled on the MVVS was accepted into this technique.
The varsity’s mission was to assist youthful males in gaining the talents, work habits and proper attitudes to be productive in society. This method moreover assisted trainees with the occasion of specific individual abilities, good moral character, healthful ideas and physique, and a means of social accountability.
The tutorial part of this technique was funded by the Manpower, Progress, and Teaching Act of 1962. The residential part of this technique was funded by way of a $250,000 perception fund established by the Leon A. Beeghly Foundation.
The subsequent vocational teaching purposes have been provided: electrical gear repairman, auto physique repairman, auto mechanic, auto service station attendant mechanic, baker, accounting clerk, widespread office clerk, prepare dinner dinner, groundskeeper-custodian, draftsman, tabulating machine and console operator, establishing repairs , machine operators, stock inventory clerks, welding, small engine restore and peripheral gear operators. Program dimension ranged from 6 to 12 months counting on area of analysis. School college students sometimes attended eight hours of sophistication daily.
Companies at MVVS included 4 furnished dormitories, an coaching establishing, a guidance center, vocational retailers, a recreation center and a medical dispensary. A consuming hall was moreover on the premises the place meals have been served cafeteria mannequin.
Counseling and dormitory supervision was provided by males with teaching and/or experience in sociology or youth work. A psychologist was obtainable along with spiritual suppliers with chaplains, along with a Catholic priest and a Protestant minister.
Job placement of graduates from the teaching center was reported to be roughly 80 %. There was moreover a follow-up program to keep up monitor of graduating school college students and their success so that enhancements in positive programs have been made.
Don E. Watson, director of the MVVS, gave a testimonial of the success of the varsity in 1966 sooner than the Regular Subcommittee on Coaching throughout the Dwelling of Representatives when the Vocational Amendments of 1966 have been being thought-about.
In 1967, Watson gave one different testimonial in hopes to realize funding for program enlargement. In the meanwhile, the utmost functionality on the MVVS was 485 school college students at one time with an annual enrollment of about 900 school college students from all through the state. The value of the varsity per scholar was projected to be $3,500 in 1967, whereas in earlier years the related payment was roughly $2,500 per scholar.
By 1969, better than 2,000 school college students had graduated from the MVVS since its opening. Regardless that this technique was deemed profitable and operated additional economically than the Job Corps program on the time, the Division of Labor denied future funding, inflicting its closure by August 1970.