A former K-12 educator finds gratification in adult community education
After 23 years wrangling kids as an administrator in the Lompoc Unified School District, Schel Brown was ready for change. In 2019, he moved over to the Lompoc Adult School and Career Center (LASCC). There, drawing on experience in the K-12 world, he found more than a new job, he found a fulfilling new mission—complete with highly motivated students and an opportunity to serve the whole community.
“It’s a dream to build a program according to the needs of the students and the community,” says Brown, LASCC’s academic dean.
His work with LASCC allows him to design educational goals tailored to each student.
“We’re not bogged down the way you are in K-12, where you have to teach English this one particular way or you have to teach a certain kind of math,” Brown says. “In adult education, you have different goals: What do our students actually need to learn? And how can we best teach them?”
“In adult education, you have different goals: What do our students actually need to learn? And how can we best teach them?”
Schel Brown, Academic Dean, Lompoc Adult School and Career Center
For example, many students who are learning English as a second language also need help passing the U.S. citizenship exam. Recognizing this, LASCC added citizenship classes to the curriculum.
“And everyone can understand why, right?” he says. “For every component of our mission, we know the why. It’s the meat-and-potatoes question of what you need to survive in today’s world.”
One of LASCC’s overarching goals, he adds, is to guide students along the path of continuous learning at a pace that suits their individual needs.
“You might start learning English as a second language, then move into citizenship classes, earn your high school diploma, and go on to our career center for help on writing a resume, doing a job interview, and finding a job,” he says. “Or, alternatively, you might transfer into a community college to continue your education there.”
Another part of the adult school mission is serving the Lompoc community by providing skilled workers.
“We do our research and discover what the needs are there,” Brown explains. “We’ve launched a series of classes for medical assistants. Why? Because hospitals around here need them.”
During the pandemic, LASCC also added an online course to prepare students to work as paraeducators.
“A paraeducator is essentially a teacher’s aide—could be in ESL classes or special education, wherever the need is,” he explains.
Brown has also recruited teachers based on his longtime connections with Lompoc high schools and middle schools—and even elementary schools. Those teachers, already experts in instructing young children how to read and write, use the same skills to help adults learn English in night school.
“All of our teachers—every one—tell me they look forward to their adult ed classes,” Brown says. “Motivation is not a problem because these students want to be here..”
Brown says he aims to instill the school’s teachers with this perspective.
“Every student in adult ed has a story, their own reason for being here now. Some stories are sad, some are happy, some are exciting or scary,” he says. “As a teacher you have to be ready to accept them and ready to accept their personal history.”
Brown’s decades with Lompoc Unified have proven beneficial to the district’s adult school in another, deeply personal, way: As a K-12 administrator he dealt with kids who faltered due to truancy and discipline problems
“Today, one of those kids that I knew 15 years ago will walk into my office at the adult school. What happens? I get a hug,” he says. “They are not humiliated here; they are not isolated. I tell them, ‘I wanted to help you when you were 12, I want to help you now. Let’s get started.’”
For more information on the Lompoc Adult School and Career Center visit https://adulteducation.lusd.org/.
Written by Dorothy Korber
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