Superior Court Judge John Phillips remembers the day 23 years ago like it was yesterday.
A kid stood in his courtroom who’d committed a murder, a young man who was still angry and unrepentant. Then the boy’s grandmother entered.
“He broke down and started crying,” said Phillips. “He was just a kid. And I’m thinking, ‘I’m sending kids to prison for life.’”
Phillips, now 81, had seen it all in 13 years as a district attorney and then 21 as a judge. Shootings, thefts, assault. He handed out difficult sentences, but he was troubled by the stories of many children who went through his courtroom.
“It’s very easy to pull a trigger if you don’t have any future, you don’t have any goals and you don’t have anything to look forward to,” he said.
Students at Rancho Cielo are offered multiple tracks. Some arrive with so few high school credits that a GED (known as a High School Equivalency test in California) makes the most sense. Others graduate through the diploma program at John Muir Charter School, which offers both academic and career pathways. Many continue on to both full-time and community college.
There are also multiple vocational programs:
Instructor Tom Forgette supervises Abel Galindo, a student in the auto and diesel repair and car restoration program at Rancho Cielo, as he sands a dent out of a fender.
The Ranch also thinks way outside the box when it comes to skills. It’s long had an automotive and diesel mechanic program where students learn car and truck repair. But recently they realized that their county is also home to a high concentration of vintage car aficionados and the iconic Concours d’Elegance classic car show in Pebble Beach.
So they expanded the program to include a focus on vintage auto repair.
“The mechanics who do this work are starting to retire, they need someone to take their place,” said Christopher Almaraz, the Technical Education Program Coordinator. Julie Gonzalez, a student in the welding and fabrication program at Rancho Cielo, secures brake lights to a trailer.
The Concours and others donated $100,000 and Judge Phillips threw in a 1952 Mercedes. “We’re going to rebuild and repair it and then auction it off at our next fundraiser,” said DeRuosi.
This model could be expanded to other counties and even other states – and it’s needed, said Walt Duflock, a board member and president of the Western Growers Association.
"We got rid of vocational programs in the United States, but these are solid, well-paying jobs,” he said. “My members are desperate for people who can run complex machinery and manage critical systems.”
There are lots of places such public-private partnerships could work, he believes. “With everything we know, what it took the Judge 20 years to figure out, others could do in 5 or 10." Drawing more students
Rancho Cielo began with 94 students and today has 214. It’s gone from being a school of last resort for young people in serious trouble to a place students around the county think about when regular high school isn’t working for them.
“Kids are now coming here because they want the vocational training,” said Gabriela Manzo, the lead case manager for the school. The goal now is to reach “at-promise” students before they are caught up in the system.
While there are fewer kids in trouble with the law, almost all come from struggling families. About 96% of students are Latino and 69% of students come from families living at poverty level. That’s a four-person household earning just $19,000 a year. The rest are low-income.
“A student might say, ‘My dad walked out last night and we’re trying to pay the rent.’ How can we expect them to sit in class when they’re worried about their family?” asked Gabriela Manzo, the lead case manager for the school.
Others simply need a place where someone is paying attention and giving them the encouragement they need to thrive. The culinary arts program is known county-wide for its Friday night prix fixe gourmet dinner for the community at $50 a head. Last week the restaurant was packed with more than 60 guests.
Training presumes nothing and teaches everything. “Some of our students have never been to a sit-down restaurant before,” said Laura Nicola, co-manager of the restaurant who also works at La Bicyclette, a James Beard Award-winning restaurant in Carmel. Student chef Ximena Gastelum warms up a soup dish in the Rancho Cielo kitchen.
“They start out scared. We’re about building them up. Whether or not they go into food service, they learn to talk to people, to interact. They learn they have worth,” she said.
On Friday the offerings included roasted cauliflower soup, fricasseed chicken, butternut squash ravioli and a choice of pistachio panna cotta, chocolate tart or honey gelato made with honey from the school’s own hives.
Server Yaritsa Vargas, 16, began at the school four months ago. “I had severe social anxiety. I had panic attacks and couldn’t go to school. I lost two years,” she said.
She’d just spent five minutes confidently going through the menu and offering suggestions to a table full of customers, asking about food allergies and preferences.
“At the Ranch, they help you. They don’t expect you just to know how to do things, they teach you, they support you.” She reached out to straighten a table setting. “They kept me going and they believed in me. They made me feel proud of me.”