JEFFERSON — Winter can be the season of doldrums at some high schools what with long months of staring out classroom windows and watching the snow fall. Not so at the Ashtabula County Joint Vocational School. This is the season when students and instructors in career technical labs switch into high gear in preparation for local and then regional competitions. Learning and showing off career technical skills is what it’s all about at the ACJVS.

Locally, within ACJVS that is, each program holds a competition during which students in that lab demonstrate proficiency in particular skills. Depending on how they do locally, students can go on to compete regionally. Several programs have been very successful over the years.

“CIS has done extremely well in the past,” said Darrell Pluff, computer information systems instructor. “We have had students for four years in a row qualify for national level.”

There are multiple categories that computer information system students can choose to enter in the Business Profes-sionals of America contest, including programming applications, financial management and human resources. Some examples of the skills that they would demonstrate are spreadsheet applications, accounting, desktop publishing and much more. The most common entries, said Mr. Pluff, are Web site design, XHTML Program, Java and VBnet.

Winners from CIS go to Columbus for an overnight stay. Then, those who place will move on to compete in Dallas, Texas.

Business technology also participates in the BPA competitions. They test in many of the same skills as CIS, like accounting, desktop publishing and word processing.

Some programs have more physical, hands-on competitions. Culinary arts students have four options. They can enter as part of a team that will have to complete an entire meal within 90 minutes. This event involves three students plus an alternative. Another option is the dining room attendant competition, in which students must set and bus a table within a certain time frame. The next choice is pastry art, and there are two competitive options for this skill. A student can choose to do platter pastry or cake decoration.

“Most students choose to do the cake decorations where they make and decorate a cake in 30 minutes,” said David Kiphart, senior culinary instructor.

Finally, students can enter the garde manger competition, which involves carving and cutting centerpieces to look pretty in an appetizer for 12 people.

Culinary students that get gold rating at regional competition can go to the state competition at Hocking Tech. Awards are presented in Columbus. The only students that can move on to nationals are those in the team competition. In the past, the culinary program has qualified several times for state level competition.

While these programs are hard at work with competitions, public safety is concentrating on certifications. Public safety students complete 15 certifications by the end of their second year. Their junior year they will complete six certifications, including American Red Cross Professional Rescuer Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Automated External Defibrillator, American Red Cross Basic First Aid, Response to Terrorism and 9-1-1 Telecommun-ications.

Senior public safety students have been involved with fire truck training since the first day of school in August and will complete the program in February with 240 or more hours of training. Seniors will complete nine more certifications before they graduate in May, including Fire Fighter Level II, Emergency Vehicle Operations, Hazardous Materials Awareness Level and Hazardous Materials Operations Level.

“Over the two years that the students attend the program, they will learn a variety of skills that they can use in the future,” said instructor Keith Stewart.

Two ACJVS students, Anthony Koeth and James Tracey, have just returned from Washington, D.C., where they attended the SkillsUSA Regional Officer Training Institute. The primary reason for their attendance was to learn how to conduct their regional competitions, which is especially important this year, as the ACJVS will be hosting the SkillsUSA regional competitions in February.

Koeth and Tracey were accompanied on their trip by Manda Jackson, ACJVS admissions assistant. She says that Koeth’s and Tracey’s performance at the regional competition could get them invited “to meet with business and industry on behalf of their region, attend the state conference and serve as support staff [and] serve as liaison to the schools in their region. It basically depends how involved they want to be.”