By DEB BENTLY
Staff Writer
Kelly Delacruz admits she didn’t see it coming.
During a statewide event on Feb. 28 in the Twin Cities, it was announced that she had been selected as the statewide winner of the program’s “teacher of the year” award. As the details of the winner’s career were being itemized and becoming more and more familiar, she suddenly realized it was her–and struck her neighbor, NRHEG principal David Bunn, in the knee.
“That’s when I realized why he had come,” she admits.
Pro-Start is a high-school based career and technical education (CTE) program sponsored by the National Restaurant Association. As the name implies, students who choose to take part get a start on professional preparation in the hospitality and culinary industries.
Delacruz had brought two five-student teams to this year’s state competition, whose rules required each group to prepare an appetizer, an entree and a side dish from scratch–within 60 minutes and without electricity–while meeting all food safety and serving standards. Having prepared and trained the two NRHEG teams, she was not allowed to interact with them during the competition. “I could only take pictures and watch from a distance,” she recalls. “It was very hard not to say anything.”
It was during the mid-day banquet that her award was announced.
Although she jokes she has no idea how she was selected, Delacruz admits she might have caught on a bit sooner.
“For one thing, my program is growing rather quickly,” she observes. The NRHEG Pro-Start program brought one team to last year’s statewide events, two to this year’s. Learner interest in the in-school training and certification has taken Delacruz from 14 students at last year’s beginning to nearly 30 registered for next year. Participants can decide to stay in the program for two years, and can complete the requirements for a food-handling certification that is a doorway directly into industry.
“This is a workforce that hasn’t been available before,” she observes. “Businesses in the community have reached out to me because we can provide exactly what they need.
“We’re saving local nursing homes and restaurants money because they don’t have to pay these workers while they’re acquiring the needed qualifications.”
Another factor, Delacruz suggests, are a range of accomplishments within the five years she has been on NRHEG’s staff.
Hired in spring of 2018, Delacruz began teaching in September. That year the district learned there was community support for a funding referendum which expanded and broadened the CTE programs at the school.
During her second year with the district, Delacruz joined the school’s science teachers and fellow CTE instructors Dan Sorum and Brad Root as they explored options for expansion and put together plans for the various facilities.
Using other programs and professional experience as a foundation, Delacruz designed an expanded FACS classroom which provides space both for traditional deskwork and for “lab” stations with industrial grade work surfaces and equipment.
That space is now in its third year of use. Courses taught in it range from middle-school and high-school “life skills,” to the upper-level Pro-Start classes. “Life skills will always be important,” observes Delacruz. “Some of those fundamental abilities are important for home life, of course, but will also be helpful to students in industry. They can be applied at home, but also enhance a student’s employability.”
One important example is teamwork. “I expect my students to work together to accomplish the many individual elements of the larger tasks,” says Delacruz. “If they complain about who they’re assigned as partners, I point out to them that no future employer is going to ask who they would rather be working with.”
Observations of that type, as well as the industrial-grade surroundings, not only encourage learners to acquire skills they can use every day, Delacruz comments, they may also open students’ minds to the possibility of a someday-job in the hospitality field.
A final indicator Delacruz says she might have taken note of is that the NRHEG district’s strong support of the FACS program makes it possible for her to do excellent work. “I’m really grateful to the school for trusting me,” she says. “Following my recommendations for the design of my classroom, allowing participation in these specialized programs, listening to and giving genuine consideration to some of my plans.
“It’s a great environment for growth–and apparently for excellence.”