Perry Meridian High School - Passages Yearbook (Indianapolis, IN)

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Central UTine - Getting a Head Start Central Nine vocational technical school for Perry Meridian students and students from nine other schools, gave juniors and seniors a head start in getting furthur educa- tion. Students who chose to enroll in courses offered at Central Nine spent half of the school day at Perry and the other half at the vocational school. Some courses offered lasted only two semesters while others lasted four. Students attending signed up during their sophomore year. Many various courses, from foods to medical occupations, were offered at Central Nine Around 180 students were enrolled, and the enrollment had increased from past years. Three courses related to business were offered,, includ- ing accounting, secretarial clerical workers, and marketing distribution. The accounting and sec- retarial clerical courses taught student about computers and word processing as well as teaching them the basic skills of office workers. Central Nine offered two new courses,. a computer course and a cosmetology course. The new computer course, data processing, had originally been studied with com- puter programming. Mrjay Ceimpbell, the Perry Meridian representative for Central Nine said, Having the new data processing course works out better because it gets more students learning about computers. The cosmotology course was a four 138 CENTRAL NINE

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teacher, originated an idea to incor- porate couponing and reftinding value books into her teaching. In this pro- ject, students learned how to save from five to twenty dollars on their grocery bill and how to send in refund offers to get money on products. It would be good for students who are going to college because they wiU need to learn to save money, said Mrs. Burdine. Future improvements in the business department included purchasing com- puters for the accoimting classes. Mrs. Shambaugh stated, We want computers in order to keep the students up with the business world. Without them, our department won ' t be as modem as some businesses are. She also indicated that the department is hopeful of starting a new class. We want a course ceiUed business communications which would teach the students all kinds of commimications that go on in the business world. Lisa Williams ' 83 was named loc al winner of the Busjness Career Development Program. This program was sponsored by Executive Women International, in cooperation with Lanier Business Products, Inc. It was designed to assist, motivate, and encourage high school students con- sidering a career in business. Lisa received a cash award and a 8250 donation for the school plus a por- table dictation machine for Mr. James Head, principal. Lisa also advanced to the district competition. This year brought new hght to the faces of many business teachers as they saw upturns in the enrollment and in the number of passing students in their courses. Even though the population for the whole school had leveled off, more students reahzed the importance of including business classes in their curriculum. Some popular courses included Typing I-II, which dealt with fim- damental typing skills. General business, the only business course offered to freshmen, helped each stu- dent to imderstand and solve every- day business problems. Accounting classes studied the systematic re- cording of business transactions. Business law dealt with the study of basic commom laws pertaining to business and everday Ufe. The business department is one of the better and larger departments because everyone helps each other out and works their hardest at doing their jobs, said Mrs. Biu-dine. Marketing classes performed a simulated board game from Proctor and Gamble where the class divided up into smaller groups and formed a company. The companies competed in creating a successful product. Another project was the study of the courses. We have also done new advertising where the students would look through magazines and pick out different types of advertising copy. Some ads were emotional and some appealed to the senses. All beginning typing students were able to use elec- tric typewriters instead of the ob- solete manual ones. We saw an im- provement in speed from past years. We were also using practice sets in Ike Wyant ' 84 writes down some notes on a lecture in advanced business. Mrs. Lennyce Powers answers a question about shorthand from one of her students. importance of packaging; they used the Tylenol case as an example. The business department saw new changes and new improvements boimd to create some P M H S students that will be minding their own businesses in the future. Mr. Gary Raker, general business typing teacher, said, We are going to get word-processing equipment which will be used in the secretarial general business. Mrs. Sharon Keith, office procedures, business machines, and typing teacher, remarked, We were getting money from the school board and the state to purchase the word processors. We were positive that we were going to get them, but we didn ' t know when. We wotdd also use them for instruc- tional purposes. •BUSINESS 137 iHIIH

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semester course. During the four semesters, students got 1500 hours of training. This enabled them to become Ucensed beauticians right out of high school. Jennifer Weist ' 84, who was one of the cosmotology students said, I really like being able to take cosmotology. It taught me things about my career that I would otherwise have had to wait until after high school to learn. It saves money too. Horticulture and building trades were two other courses offered. Hor- ticulture taught students many things about landscaping. Building trades gave students on-the-job training by having the students build a three bedroom house. Not only did they learn about building the house but about electrical wiring and plumbing as well. Auto body and auto mechanics were two automobile-related courses offered. The auto body course taught students about repairing and refinishing as weU as framework and detailing on the automobile. Auto mechanics taught students about ser- vice trades of the automotive in- dustry. Small engine mechanics, which taught students how to repair small engines, was offered. Commercial foods helped students prepare for employment in food ser- vice occupations. Brett Richards ' 83, who was enrolled in commercial foods said that he wanted to manage a restaurant in a hotel or motel. I liked Central Nine because we got to cook for two hours at a time. We made good food. Some other courses offered at Central Nine were machine drafting, which taught students skills on becoming mechanical draftmen, machine trades which taught students how to use machines correctly, electronics, and welding. Mediced occupations, which gave students furthur education in the health field, was available. Awards were given to students in each department for being excel- lent in their area. Students at Perry Meridian recieved five of the eighteen plaques awarded to students from ten different schools. David Jackson ' 83, who won a plaque for building trades, said, I think Central Nine is a really good program. I won a 8250 scholar- ship through Central Nine . I plan to continue in the field after high school. Other winners of plaques were Shannon Bruce ' 83, for medical occupations, Jim Peterman ' 83 for welding, Eden Engleman ' 83 for hor- ticulture, and Jeff Manifold ' 83 for mechanical drafting. Mr. Robert Dunn, the assistant principal at Perry Meridian said, I think the advantage of students enrolling inCentralNine is that it gave them more schooling. Students who may not want to go to college have a better chance at becoming employed after taking a course at Central Nine With the many courses offered, students had a choice of career fields to study. C-9 helped students get jobs and win scholarships. A lot of students at other schools don ' t even get a chance to attend a school like Central Nine. I like it because it ' s helping me learn things about my career that I would otherwise have to go to college to learn, said Eden Engleman ' 83. Davita Lee ' 85 becomes familiar with a new acquaintance while learning about the hands. CENTRAL NINE 139 Bjaiggg ' aa y- ' . ' .: bS