AURELIUS - Gary and Cherie Sheftic may be graduates of the Cayuga-Onondaga Board of Cooperative Educational Services, but they said the campus they learned at didn't compare to that of their children.
“It's much better than the previous campus,” Gary, of Auburn, said of the former BOCES campus on South Street that is now a vacant lot. “It's clean and really nice, well kept and it's a green building. It looks like a real campus.”
Their oldest son, Gary Jr., now studies culinary arts at this “real campus,” the Regional Education Center on West Genesee Street Road.
Their middle child Brandon, 14, plans on enrolling in BOCES' automotive program and their youngest, Kelly, 11, wants to study cosmetology or culinary arts when they both are old enough.
Even Cherie intends on taking a night accounting class offered by BOCES.
On Thursday, the Sheftic family attended BOCES' annual open house, wandering around the green-tiled hallways of the Regional Education Center, taking in all the campus had to offer.
“We felt we should come and look around because it is part of the community and I voted ‘yes' for it,” Gary said. “I wanted to see where taxpayer money went.”
The open house featured guided and individual tours of the new building, visits to the various campus-based programs, visits to academic classrooms and physical education facilities, exhibits and demonstrations of student work, exhibits of adult education and alternative education programs, information about distance learning, the day-care facility, special education services, and earning GED degrees.
Superintendent Bill Speck said that a steady stream of people from a cross section of the community turned out for the open house - including representatives from government and education sectors - and that positive reaction to the building and BOCES' programs was in abundance.
“I've seen a lot of people in the building this year that came because they missed the open house last year,” he said. “It's pretty much the same expressions on their faces (as those from last year) and the same positive, proactive comments from people who are first-timers in the building.”
The year-old $43.5 million building features state-of-the-art equipment to facilitate increased student learning and green technology to be eco-friendly.
“We're very fortunate that in the last decade, if not more, this community has worked to support us on every level, which supports students at every level,” he said. “I'm thinking that now more than ever they are going to continue to support technical education that leads towards post-secondary education and also leads to preparing a better workforce locally.”
Even though Mark Murray, of Skaneateles, came to last year's open house, he said he was compelled to visit again.
“My only expectation is to see how it's changed from last year,” he said.
Murray, whose son Eric is a construction trades student at BOCES, attended Onondaga County's Lakeland campus when it existed, he said.
“This is no comparison to what that place was,” he said.
Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net
Their oldest son, Gary Jr., now studies culinary arts at this “real campus,” the Regional Education Center on West Genesee Street Road.
Their middle child Brandon, 14, plans on enrolling in BOCES' automotive program and their youngest, Kelly, 11, wants to study cosmetology or culinary arts when they both are old enough.
Even Cherie intends on taking a night accounting class offered by BOCES.
On Thursday, the Sheftic family attended BOCES' annual open house, wandering around the green-tiled hallways of the Regional Education Center, taking in all the campus had to offer.
“We felt we should come and look around because it is part of the community and I voted ‘yes' for it,” Gary said. “I wanted to see where taxpayer money went.”
The open house featured guided and individual tours of the new building, visits to the various campus-based programs, visits to academic classrooms and physical education facilities, exhibits and demonstrations of student work, exhibits of adult education and alternative education programs, information about distance learning, the day-care facility, special education services, and earning GED degrees.
Superintendent Bill Speck said that a steady stream of people from a cross section of the community turned out for the open house - including representatives from government and education sectors - and that positive reaction to the building and BOCES' programs was in abundance.
“I've seen a lot of people in the building this year that came because they missed the open house last year,” he said. “It's pretty much the same expressions on their faces (as those from last year) and the same positive, proactive comments from people who are first-timers in the building.”
The year-old $43.5 million building features state-of-the-art equipment to facilitate increased student learning and green technology to be eco-friendly.
“We're very fortunate that in the last decade, if not more, this community has worked to support us on every level, which supports students at every level,” he said. “I'm thinking that now more than ever they are going to continue to support technical education that leads towards post-secondary education and also leads to preparing a better workforce locally.”
Even though Mark Murray, of Skaneateles, came to last year's open house, he said he was compelled to visit again.
“My only expectation is to see how it's changed from last year,” he said.
Murray, whose son Eric is a construction trades student at BOCES, attended Onondaga County's Lakeland campus when it existed, he said.
“This is no comparison to what that place was,” he said.
Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net
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