Greeter: Dave Turner

Invocation: Justin Salters

Flag Salute: “Paddy” Collins

Song: “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” led by Jacob Frost and pathetically sang by us.

SPOKE EDITOR PROFILE:

Jorge Barrientos is the director of marketing and public relations at Law Office of Chain | Cohn | Clark. He serves on board of directors for a variety of local community organizations. When he’s not working or serving our community, you can find him traveling the world and hanging with his family, which includes wife Carla, 6-year-old son Julian, 4-year-old daughter Gianna Sol.

GUESTS:

• Cameron Illingworth (Steve Illingworth), taking over for his pops as President/CEO of Urner’s.
• Becky Skeggs, Chad Vegas, Charles Ernst from Providence Classical Academy (Jeff Gutierrez)

GOOD NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• Steve Illingworth is retiring from Urner’s; Cameron Illingworth, his son, will be taking over as President/CEO
• Dr. Girish Patel advised us to review local cycling laws before buying an electrical bike after his grandson was involved in an accident.
• Former Downtown Rotarian Jeff Green filled in for Lilean and joined us via video call from Utah, where he is vacationing to escape the Vegas heat, and keeping busy kayaking and mountain biking.

Willieboy's low-effort photo from the back of the room…  like he just don't care.

PROGRAM

Sovereign Grace Church senior pastor Chad Vegas – former educator and Kern High School District board trustee – introduced Becky Skaggs, “headmaster” of Providence Classical Academy, a private tax-exempt school in Rosedale opened in 2021 operating under the oversight of Sovereign Grace. The school focuses on classical education “grounded in the Christian scriptures and the Western tradition, with the goal of forming godly, virtuous, self-governing men and women.” It offers grades Transitional Kindergarten through 8.

Classical education is a traditional approach to teaching and learning that emphasizes the cultivation of wisdom, virtue, and eloquence through the study of the liberal arts and the works of Western civilization. At Providence, students learn standard subjects, but also Bible and catechism, Latin (starting in fourth grade), cursive, choir, and physical education (including line dancing and karate). Students focus on the things that are “good, true, and beautiful,” Skaggs said, and learn through the “narration method,” where they read or listen, retell and explain the content back in their own words, and discuss/reflect.

This type of model, Skaggs said, is needed as public schools in our state struggle with teaching students reading and math. She highlighted a recent WalletHub report ranked Bakersfield as the fourth least educated city in the United States. Oftentimes, public school students, she said, see “education as outside of themselves,” complain about lessons that they are never going to use in life, and see school as a means to an end, a financial end. “We need to be teaching about what is our true purpose,” she said.

• Context: Skaggs said 70% of California public school students are testing below reading levels, while 90% are below math levels. Those numbers are actually 53% for reading and 64% for math, according to Public Policy Institute of California, and vary greatly depending on ethnicity, gender, and low-income, for example.

• Context: It should be noted the WalletHub report is nowhere near scientific. It’s metrics weights are arbitrarily chosen and highly influential on outcomes, ignores local socio-economic contexts that can skew comparisons, and is an oversimplification.

Providence Classical Academy touts a 10-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio. The school is “not exclusive, not snobby,” Skaggs said, and open to all students. Annual tuition is $7,450 plus other fees.

Skaggs graduated from Centennial High School, taught and worked as a counselor at Liberty High, and had experience in charter/home schools – 22 years total in education – before working at Providence. She has four children in high school and above.

Learn more about the school at bakersfieldclassical.com.