Students and parents in Delano as well as the Kern County Superintendent of Schools (KCSOS) are anxiously watching new construction that is taking place on Cecil Avenue near Randolph. When completed, it will be an imaginative, three building educational complex known as North Kern Community School. According to Student Services Administrator Ken Taylor, it may be open to begin enrolling students as early as March of next year. Taylor said it is a much needed facility which will provide education for students who have been expelled from their traditional schools, are on probation or because of their behavior are at risk of falling into one of those categories. He estimates 40 percent of the students in KCSOS Court and Community Schools programs come from outside the greater Bakersfield area and that the new facility will be the first effort to offer more comprehensive educational services to that population in the outlying areas. The complex will consist of an administrative building with a general purpose classroom and others for special education, technology, independent study and space for partnering agencies such as the Kern County Probation Department.

Organizers of the Kern County Academic Decathlon Concert figure they had a pretty good measuring stick to judge how well it was received by approximately 100 high school teams from throughout California who attended the Oct. 22 concert at the Rabobank Convention Center in Bakersfield. "They did not want to leave after the concert was over," said event organizer and Kern County Superintendent of SchoolsÂ’ curriculum coordinator Kathleen White. "It was wonderful." Latin American music is the theme nationally for this yearÂ’s Academic Decathlon, but the combination live concert and lecture to prepare for it has been a Bakersfield tradition for years. It helps high school students prepare for the music portion of regional Academic Decathlons which are held around the state in February. Sponsored by the Kern County Academic Decathlon Association, Kern County Superintendent of Schools and Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra, the Kern County event is one of only a few around the state where students can hear the music performed in a live concert. That is why teams from as far away as Fresno to the north and Redlands to the southeast attended. "I think it helps us understand the instruments that were used in a particular period and identify with the sounds they produce," said Jasmin Pannu, who came to the concert with her classmates from Fowler High School.

While it is a little early to say the dream has come true, certainly star dust has been sprinkled for foster youth at the Dream Center & Coffee House at 1212 18th Street in Bakersfield. It opened recently to help foster youth and former foster youth transition to adulthood when government support ends at age 18. Kern County is home to 2,400 foster youth and each year about 200 are "emancipated" (reach age 18). Collaboration is making the coffee shop a quick favorite among local downtown customers. The Kern County Network for Children (KCNC), which administers the Foster Youth Services program, has a ready base of job seekers to work behind the counter. Dagny's Coffee Shop owner Mike Walters operates the shop and his reputation for serving a quality product is well known. "Dagny's has made a commitment to train and employ a certain percentage of emancipated foster youth," said KCNC Director Tom Corson, whose office is right next door. "Other employers in the private sector are seeing the advantages of hiring foster youth and have stepped forward, too, creating flexible work hours so they can attend school." Being able to work and attend school is important to this segment of the county's population. Historically, 54 percent do not finish high school and only three percent attend college. According to Corson, about 20 percent each year become homeless and 60 percent of the females become pregnant before age 20. To quote Corson, "Their life is not easy."

It was about 10:35 a.m. on Sept. 30. Not yet time for the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra to perform its second of two 45-minute Young People Concerts at the Rabobank Convention Center in Bakersfield. As hundreds of elementary school age children filed down the aisles and into their seats, a female member of the symphony could be seen smiling and waving to a group of them. Then, she stepped off the stage and came up the aisle to meet them. Paulette Shires had two reasons to identify with her select group of audience admirers. This would be the first exposure many would have to the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra. Shires remembered her early-age introduction to the symphony. It was under far different circumstances. She began performing with the orchestra as an eighth-grader. Shires also bonded with a much smaller portion of the audience for another reason. They were students in her sixth-grade class at Leo B. Hart School. On this day, teacher had turned performer. “I’ve seen lots of my students come through the convention center doors in my 28 years of teaching, and when I see them in the audience I like to come out to say hello,” Shires said. “Just by being here, it lets them see and hear that classical music is alive and well. That’s important. As for me, I receive plenty of applause when I return to the classroom, and they will tell me, ‘you sounded pretty good.’ But the biggest thrill for me is when the students and I play together at the school’s year end concert.”

You really have to dig a deep trench through the Kern County Superintendent of Schools’ (KCSOS) archives to find the first mention of “Special People Day” at the Kern County Fair. A Bakersfield Californian story titled “500 Handicapped Children Spend Day at the Fair” was written on Sept. 26, 1963. The accompanying picture shows two members of the Kern County Sheriff’s Mounted Posse, Ernie Ferguson and Cliff Neeley, watching a circus performance with six special needs children. The article hints that this was not the first year the posse had opened up the fair for deserving children. It mentions that A. C. Wynn was serving his 10th year as event chairman. That means it may have been happening as far back as 1953. Some posse veterans think it may go back further than that. Things have changed quite a bit since the 1963 article was written. Back then, the posse served “30 dozen hot dogs, gallons of milk and ice cream and soft drinks.” At the Sept. 25, 2008 Special People Day at the Fair, Kern County Superintendent of Schools' (KCSOS), statistics show the posse barbecued more than 3,000 hamburgers and hot dogs for the students, teachers and aides, with an equal amount of soft drinks and other food. Each year the nonprofit posse teams with fair officials and KCSOS to provide special needs students with this day of meaningful experiences. While the posse paid for carnival rides, bought food and cooked the lunches, KCSOS volunteers and those from other school districts bused the children in and provided supervision. The day offers much more than a free meal for the children. It is an opportunity for them to socialize and experience life outside the classroom. The opportunity helps many children with sensory problems, overcome fears when introduced to petting animals. Students with hearing and sight disorders see and hear the day in enjoyable ways others may not grasp.

Rugged men who battle flames for a living can be some of the kindest, caring and inspirational visitors a child confined to a wheelchair may ever see. Known as the Kern Valley "Hot Shots," these U.S. Bureau of Land Management firemen excite students in the county officeÂ’s orthopedically exceptional classes at Suburu School in Bakersfield. Because when the Hot Shots come to visit teacher Julie MacDonell and Jenna DowningÂ’s students, they come to play and play hard. If the Hot Shots show up with a football, as they did on Sept. 17, the students know it is time to put their game faces on because they are included. Yes, included. Each Hot Shot chooses a student as his player. The whistle blows, the football sails into the air and all of a sudden man and student become one as wheelchairs go speeding down the field in pursuit of a touchdown. Facial expressions tell it all, especially when an unsuspecting student suddenly has the football thrust in his or her lap and realizes they have a chance to make something exciting happen. Smiles, unbridled laughter and shouts of joy fill the air during those moments, as Hot Shot and student quickly