Cañada Hosts ACCEL

On May 2, 2014, the Adult Education, College, and Career Educational Leadership Consortium (ACCEL) held a major meeting at Canada College. Over sixty teachers, professors, student services professionals, and administrators spent a productive and inspiring afternoon. The ACCEL work is a mobilization in response to the AB 86 legislation with leadership from the three colleges in our district and the major adult schools along with support from community based organizations, non-profits, libraries, the County Office of Education, and other providers of adult education across the county. This work is funded by the AB 86 Adult Education Consortium Planning Grants in which the state provided $22.5 million. The goal is to redesign an educational system that creates linkages for students across adult schools and community colleges to accelerate academic and career success.

Four teams have been formed to cover the county–Coast, South, Central, and North. Co-directing two of the groups from Cañada are Jenny Castello, Professor of ESL, and Nadya Sigona, Counselor. We also have Dr. Larry Buckley, President, Dr. David Johnson, Dean, Diana Tedone, Librarian, Ray Lapuz, Professor of Mathematics, and Noel Chavez, Outreach Coordinator, serving in various capacities. Codirecting this entire project for the district is Dr Gregory Anderson, Vice President of Instruction.

In less than a year, the ACCEL coalition will prepare a comprehensive plan for the ongoing coordination and integration of adult education. Your colleagues mentioned above along with partners from across the county are laying the groundwork for ongoing funding of hundreds of millions of dollars.