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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 15pt">Commissioner Brad Avakian<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<span style="FONT-SIZE: 15pt">Bureau of Labor & Industries<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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</strong></font></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Press Release<o:p></o:p></font></span></b></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">For Immediate Distribution</font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">October 3, 2012<o:p></o:p></font></font></b></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">CONTACT: Bob Estabrook, 503-709-0730</font></p>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Labor Commissioner Visit Spotlights Churchill CTE Program
<o:p></o:p></font></span></b></p>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">New engineering and design program funded by state grant
<o:p></o:p></font></font></i></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">EUGENE-</b> Joined by Churchill High School Principal Kim Finch and local legislators, Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries
Commissioner Brad Avakian today toured three classrooms of students participating in Churchill High School‘s new program of career and technical education (CTE) in engineering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>As state labor commissioner, Avakian has championed creation and expansion of job skills and career education options around the state—including leading the widely popular effort to establish a state CTE Revitalization Grant Fund, which funded the new
Churchill program and similar efforts in 21 schools just this school year.</font></font></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">“I want to congratulate the Churchill and 4J community for offering an exciting and well-planned program to students,” Avakian said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>“It’s no accident that this proposal was selected by our grant review committee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>I hope that as this program grows it will directly benefit a lot of Eugene students, and can serve as a model for other districts to utilize in their communities.”</font></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Churchill High School and the Eugene 4J School District were awarded $424,766 from the CTE grant fund to create the new “Relevance and Rigor in New STEM Career Paths”
program, which is the first full-scale, coherent pre-engineering program in Eugene.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The award enables the district to develop an innovative science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum where students engage in authentic, problem-based engineering projects and are connected with local engineers and consulting firms, ensuring
direct alignment with the industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">“Equipping young Oregonians with the hands-on skills to tackle real-world problems is what these programs are all about,” Avakian continued.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>“It’s why so many legislators are here supporting the effort, why so many Oregon employers and organized labor are involved—the community partners who are already on board around the state are clamoring for more programs like this one, and we’re going
to the legislature in January to help make them a reality.”<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><o:p></o:p></b></font></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -1.5in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in" class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><o:p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"> </font></o:p></b></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">Avakian is recognized as a champion for “21<sup>st</sup> century shop classes” in Oregon schools, having led the fight to pass House Bill 3362 in 2011 and establish a dedicated
grant fund to help schools and school districts create or expand CTE education options that work in concert with local employers to train young people for high-wage, high-demand jobs at a younger age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The first </font><a href="http://www.oregon.gov/BOLI/docs/CTE_Grant_Recipients.pdf"><font color="#800080" size="3" face="Times New Roman">eight grants awarded from the Career and Technical Education Grant Fund</font></a><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">
will benefit 21 schools across Oregon this school year. </font></p>
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<font size="3" face="Times New Roman">######</font></p>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">The mission of the Bureau of Labor and Industries is to protect employment rights, advance employment opportunities, and protect access to housing and public accommodations
free from discrimination.</font></span></i></p>
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