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By JIM KERSTETTER; Times Leader Hazleton Bureau
Sunday, October 18, 1992 Page: 1B QUICK WORDS: KEYSTONE JOB CORPS
CENTER
BUTLER TWP. — It’s nestled comfortably in the heart of Conyngham Valley,
and it’s one the best of its kind in the nation.
It’s where 16- to 24-year-olds come to get a second chance, to learn a
skill that will help them for the rest of their lives.
The Keystone Job Corps Center was rated the best job corps center in a
five-state region — including Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia,
West Virginia and Washington, D.C. — and in the top 10 among 107 centers in
the United States, center director James Hasson said Thursday.
National officials will visit the center at 10 a.m. Tuesday to accept the
awards from the U.S. Department of Labor.
The Labor Department pays a private contractor, Management and Training
Corporation, about $5 million per year to run the center.
The 700-student center has sprawled across 175 acres in the township since
1966. It offers 26 vocation courses and academic training for youths who are
high school dropouts or poor and in need of help, Hasson said.
The center was measured by national officials of the Labor Department in
six categories:
Average length of stay, average weekly termination rate, learning gains in
reading and math, graduate equivalency rate, placement rate and vocational
completion rate.
The average stay at the center is 262 days. The longer a student stays the
better, Hasson said.
“It shows they’re picking something up. They’re learning and they’re
working,” he said.
The center also rated high in the other categories, but most importantly,
the center’s job placement rate is 97 percent, Hasson said.
Hasson gives credit for the success to his staff and a gentle pastoral
campus setting.
“In a lot of centers, the best teachers are looking to get out in a year or
two. Here, the same people have been working for 15 or 20 years. I could say
it’s the most important thing to our success,” Hasson said. “A lot of the
inner-city centers are in tough areas. They may not have housing or provide
meals. It’s not the same situation.”
Hasson also attributes the center’s success to tough discipline standards.
“When they come in here, they know what’s expected of them. They know they
have responsibilities. They have to make their beds, keep things clean.
“They know if they throw a punch, do anything violent, get caught with
drugs or break the law, they’re gone. They’re at the bus station and on the
next bus out of here,” he said.