By Olivia Madera
Santa Paula Adult Education is one of the many adult education schools that are a part of the Ventura County Adult Education Consortium program. This program helps adults over the age of 18 become skilled workers, obtain further education, and become successful in their future career paths they wish to take.
Georgina Ramirez, Ed.D. is the Assistant Superintendent of English Language Services and Community Engagement for the Santa Paula Adult Education program and is in her second year with adult education. Dr. Ramirez said her education experience before the position consisted of a kindergarten teacher, first and second grade teacher, administrator, assistant principal, principal, and director. She also said she was born in Mexico and came to the United States when she was five.
“I’m really passionate about making sure that our adult learners learn English first of all, and then open doors for them to be able to go to community college and get a career,” Dr. Ramirez said.
Dr. Ramirez took over the program in July 2023 from Robin Gillette. She said she is excited to oversee the program because she gets to create pathways for adult learners in Santa Paula.
A vision Dr. Ramirez had when she took over the position was to increase the number of adult students learning English by adding more courses and supporting more students in English. For the different levels of learning English, Dr. Ramirez said they have hired more teachers and brought in basic computer courses.
“My vision really is to be able to offer CTE programs like they can do CNA, jobs that parents or anyone can do that doesn’t necessarily require two years of education, just so they can get started on something,” Dr. Ramirez said.
Last year, Dr. Ramirez said the school had their first high school graduate since implementing the High School Diploma.
Dr. Ramirez said the program is gaining momentum but wasn’t able to get off the ground in previous years. Her goal is to be able to offer the program to students and those who didn’t receive high school credits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A diploma opens so many doors for them. I want to open doors for our community instead of closing doors, so I don’t want to have any barriers, whatever I can do to best support,” Dr. Ramirez said.
The Santa Paula Adult Education school also offers an English as a Second Language program, high school equivalency classes, and credit recovery classes. Dr. Ramirez said that this year they started a Spanish class for English speakers who want to learn the language and help them in the workforce. She said they will also offer Hi-Set in Spanish.
Dr. Ramirez is trying to work with the community college and see the pathways that can be established for the upcoming years.
She said she wants to target their small continuation school students to be interested in it.
“Really propel our families or our community to be able to look at the opportunities that are out there and just take advantage of those,” Dr. Ramirez said.
Dr. Ramirez said she would want people to know that the school is here for them and that it is expanding its marketing to reach out to the entire Santa Paula community.
“We just want them to know we are here for the community. It is here to help our community. We have so much to offer in adult education, and I really want to broaden that and make our community aware of what we have to offer,” Dr. Ramirez said.
Dr. Ramirez said “starting the adult education program has been very memorable and accomplished, referring back to the recent student graduates. Ventura College talked about their opportunities which pushed her to have more of an articulation with the community colleges”.
“If they want to come and learn we’ll welcome our residents,” Dr. Ramirez said.
Though the school has specific open enrollment times, they still accept students year-round to learn. Dr. Ramirez said they weren’t sure of whether to continue to sustain this or not but didn’t want to close doors for people and are keeping it in place as of now. However, she said some classes such as the computer basics class, take ten weeks and aren’t as favorable to open enrollment as semester-long ESL classes.
Dr. Ramirez said the over 100 student school is small enough for the staff to be able to know their students and support them in many ways by providing transportation and childcare to them. She also wants students, and anyone interested in enrolling to know the school is ready to support students in their education and towards their goals.
Dr. Ramirez said if they are unable to help students in a certain way, they will point them in the right direction and connect them to where they need to be.
“If there’s a need, we will make it happen,” Dr. Ramirez said.
To register for classes at Santa Paula Adult Education you can visit the website https://adulteducation.santapaulausd.org or by calling at 805-933-8990 ext. 88057 or you can visit the school at 221 4th street, off of Harvard Blvd., in Santa Paula.