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Community Corner

Let's Meet: David Matuszak

Patch is profiling each individual recipient of the 2011 Spice of Life Awards.

David Matuszak, the 2011 Educator of the Year, has served as director for the South County Regional Occupational Programs (ROP) for the past 12 years. ROP provides high school and community college students with vocational career training. He oversees 17 different sites from San Juan Bautista to San Jose and over 4,000 students.

Matuszak moved to Gilroy from Chicago in 1999 and became involved with the city's as soon as he touched ground. He told Patch at the why he thinks vocational training is the way of the future.

Gilroy Patch: How does it feel to be recognized as Educator of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce?

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Matuszak: It’s just great. I’ve been involved with a number of chambers over the years and Gilroy’s chamber is head and shoulders above the rest. It’s a world-class organization.

Patch: How does vocational education fit into the future of Gilroy?

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Matuszak: It’s essential that business and schools work together. It’s a common product we’re working towards. We want to make sure students have the skills they need for work.

Patch: Kids go to school and get an academic education. How does vocational training play into the success of the students you teach?

Matuszak: Entrepreneurs are the wave of the future, so we need to encourage more people to open up their own small businesses. Big businesses just aren’t there.

We need to teach people the skills to start their own business and be successful in their own business. It’s not just the academic education they need. People need to learn about things like the laws involved with owning a business and how to ethically leverage their money.

Patch: You weren’t always an educator, right?

Matuszak: I spent a number of years making candy bars at Nestle. I was a training manager at a large confections plant. I got to see first hand what happens if you don’t enter the workforce with training. A lot of people couldn’t read. We had to hire people to teach them the alphabet.

Patch: What are some of the issues with education that concern you?

Matuszak: The big issue is funding. California schools are in desperate straights. The class sizes keep climbing at an unbelievable rate. Right now we have 36 kids in our auto shop class. How effective is that? It’s just too many.

Class size is a killer, especially in career technical education. You can’t serve those large numbers.

Patch: What’s your favorite thing about Gilroy?

Matuszak: Gilroy has been very fortunate to have people who look forward. The Garlic Festival, for example, was a very forward-looking event when it was conceived because they created a structure that would continually provide funding for a lot of non-profits. The chamber makes some money there too, so it keeps the chamber membership fees low. It’s a very forward-thinking event.

You wouldn’t realize it driving downtown because it feels kind of like a little county town that’s kind of stumbling, but there’s a lot going on behind the scenes. It’s a lot more sophisticated than you think at first. It’s a sleeper.

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