Former Dayton workers learn 24 hours a day
Canadian Valley expands program for employees from closed tire plant

By David Page
The Journal Record
Reprinted with permission
© March 5, 2007

EL RENO – After Bridgestone/Firestone closed its Dayton Tire plant in western Oklahoma City in October, the Oklahoma Department of Commerce conducted a survey of former employees to determine what type of job training they needed and wanted.

Among the recurring responses was aviation mechanics.

Canadian Valley Technology Center in El Reno has offered a Federal Aviation Administration-approved Aviation Maintenance Technology program since the mid-1970s and last fall the one section of the class was meeting from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday with 24 slots.

After learning of the results of the survey, officials at Canadian Valley decided to expand the program for the former Dayton Tire employees.

Now three sections of the aviation mechanics program are being offered and classes are in session 24 hours per day Monday-Friday.

"We contacted the former Dayton workers and found we had more demand for the aviation mechanics program than we would handle," said Bill Hulsey, business and industry training director at Canadian Valley.

After all 24 slots in the existing class were filled, a second aviation mechanics class was added. For the 18 students – all former Dayton Tire employees – in the second class, the school day begins at 4:30 p.m. and ends at 11:05 p.m. Monday-Friday.

The second section of the class did not meet the demand, Hulsey said.

So a third section of the class was added for an additional 18 former Dayton Tire workers. The school day for the third class begins at 11:10 p.m. Monday-Friday and ends at 6 a.m. the next morning. The class week ends at 6 a.m. Saturday.

"We had about 19 students in aviation mechanics before the Dayton plant closed and no evening classes," Hulsey said. "It is the first time we have had 24-hour-per- day classes on campus." Canadian Valley has provided around-the-clock training before, but it was always for second- and third-shift employees at a work site, he said.

"The schedule works out really well because a lot of the Dayton employees worked the third shift and were already used to the schedule," Hulsey said.

Many of the students also will be working the second and third shift after completing the program and getting jobs, he said.
The program takes three semesters, or 18 months. The FAA requires 1,965 hours of training. After completing the course, students take the FAA Airframe Mechanics Test for certification, which qualifies graduates to inspect, maintain, and repair aircraft.
Many of the program's graduates now work at Tinker Air Force Base.

"The jobs are there," said Bill Kramer, communications/marketing coordinator at Canadian Valley. "Tinker is hiring and they are looking for the FAA certification."

Canadian Valley has three aircraft on site for use in training the students, he said.

The 2.6 million-square-foot Dayton plant on S. Council Road south of Interstate 40 had 1,423 employees and 158 contract employees making about 26,200 tires per day.

"Since we are on the west side of the Oklahoma City area, a lot of the people who worked at Dayton live in our district," Hulsey said.

The technology center's district includes Canadian and Grady counties.

Workers who lost jobs because of the closure were ruled eligible by the U.S. Department of Labor for benefits under the federal Trade Readjustment Assistance and the Alternative Trade Assistance program.

The Trade Readjustment Assistance, or TRA, program covers all displaced and on-site leased workers who lose jobs due to increased imports or a shift in production to another program.

The Central Oklahoma Workforce Investment Board arranged for TRA funding to pay tuition costs for the former Dayton employees.

"We made a commitment that the funding was there so they (Canadian Valley Technology Center) could go ahead and hire additional instructors and buy equipment," said Eddie Foreman, CEO of the Central Oklahoma Workforce Investment Board.

The nonprofit board was created after the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 was passed to work with local officials to set policy and coordinate workforce investment programs in Oklahoma, Canadian and Logan counties.

At Canadian Valley, two additional full-time instructors and two adjunct professors were hired for the additional sections of the aviation maintenance program, Hulsey said.

Former Dayton employees are also taking classes in a similar aviation maintenance program at Gordon Cooper Technology Center in Shawnee, Foreman said.

Other tire plant workers are receiving training at Francis Tuttle Technology Center in areas such as truck driving and health care with the federal TRA money used for tuition costs, he said.

At Canadian Valley, Dayton workers are also taking electrical trade technology; heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration; and precision machining classes, Kramer said.
Providing customized training for the former Dayton Tire employees is an example of how the career technology program operates, he said.

"We were not able to reach all the Dayton workers but we are able to keep a lot of them here and that is what economic development is all about and why career technology matters," Kramer said.