The Delano Center has just found a permanent replacement director for John Jaramillo, who left the position on July 5.
The new director is Rich McCrow and was just announced by Bakersfield College President, William Andrews. McCrow was a recently retired Lieutenant Commander from the U.S Navy, and had served for 30 years. His last job for the Navy was Academic Dean for the Naval School of Health Sciences at San Diego.
He has a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Management from Fresno Pacific University and a master’s in Education from Fresno State University. Jaramillo left his position to take a job as the College of the Desert’s new dean of students.
Andrews, along with Human Resources staff for the college, had been trying to fill the vacancy since early June. It was a long process that finally ended a little under a month into the new semester. The Delano Center campus, a satellite of the Bakersfield College campus, received notice from Jaramillo that he was no longer going to be the director in the early days of June.
Since then, the position has been worked by Adjunct Faculty Administrative Supervisor John Drow. “I started right after he left, which was about the middle of July,” said Drow, “I stepped in because I had been here for so long and I knew the in’s and out’s of the institution.”
Drow has been working at the Delano Center since 2000 and said that he did not apply for the position and will continue to be the administrative supervisor for the center once the new director has been hired. “My job will be here until they get someone to come in,” said Drow, “It’s a tough job.” McCrow will now get his chance to work as the new Director and get a first hand account of the role.
The title of director comes with a numerous amount of responsibilities, and according to the job advertisement put together by Human Resources Specialist Pam Whitley, some include: the foresight of the development of the Delano Campus, leadership and supervision for instructional student and administrative services, the ability to speak Spanish, to develop and maintain a system to collect data for program evaluations, grant proposals and service area needs, as well as a stable working relationship with the college personnel and surveying the needs of the community.
“(Jaramillo) did a very good job connecting with the community,” said Andrews. “John was involved in the planning issues with the community and would regularly attend city meetings.”
“My view on it,” said Drow, “was that he was the person who would pursue things. He wasn’t afraid to knock on doors, and he was very involved here in Delano.”
After Measure G was passed, which was $180 million allowed to the Kern Community College District for repairs in 2003, Jaramillo took control of the situation and initiated the direction that would be taken for what is now Delano’s new Science and Technology Center.
According to Drow, Jaramillo was completely involved in the process of designing the new building. He met with the architects and decided what the various rooms would look like, even the bathrooms.
“He helped do the detailed planning of the center,” said Andrews. “Down to the details of the chairs and the construction.”
Jaramillo saw the early planning of the S.T.C, but was not there during construction as he was deployed to Kuwait in the spring of 2005.
“The sad part was that right before he left, the construction began,” said Site Office Coordinator for the Delano Center Raquel Lopez, “but he was here for the groundbreaking.”
According to Drow and Lopez, Jaramillo wanted to see an overall better development of the Delano Center for the community of Delano. He had numerous plans for the school, but left before most of them could be accomplished. “I used to love sitting and hearing him talk about the future plans,” said Lopez. “He would say ‘Raquel, we are going to get this fixed and get things started.’ ”
“He started it off,” said Drow, “and hopefully [McCrow] will continue his vision.”
A new “vision” for the school could include a new multi-purpose center that could be a part of Measure 10, which should be up for vote in 2010, according to Andrews. The school can look forward to the usage of new classrooms provided by Robert F Kennedy High School, which parallels the Science and Technology Center. The high school opens in August 2008.
“Part of the arrangement with the high school is that we will be able to use their auditorium, which will be sectioned off into four sections,” said Andrews, “as well as their gymnasium and career and technology classes. We will be able to run our level of courses (in the career and technology classes).”