Hanford Insider: How Lemoore College Is Building Opportunity In Kings County

Welcome And Today’s Lineup

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On this week's Hanford Insider, we're talking all things Lamore College with President James Preston. He stops by to share what's happening at the college, what's ahead, and the exciting ways Lamore College is serving our community. This is the Hanford Insider for Monday, August 31st.

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Bringing you the community news and positive stories that make Kings County a great place to call home.

City Council Updates And Local News

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In community news this week, the Hamford City Council will be meeting on Tuesday, September 1st. At the 4 p.m. study session, they'll be having discussions about murals in other areas of town other than the current restriction to just downtown. They'll also be having a discussion about the use of AI and local government. In the general session at 7, they'll be holding a public hearing about the wastewater fee rate increase, which will become effective on Wednesday. They'll also be holding a public hearing regarding the EV charging station permitting process required by Assembly Bills 1236 and 970. For those of you who've been wondering about the flock camera issue, it looks like they may be coming up for study at the September 15th council meeting. You can always stay up to date with the city of Hanford by following them on social media or visiting their website at www.hanford.city and some other news that I found online this week. It looks like crumble cookies run in Hanford has come to an end. The popular store closed last week. And I'm not gonna lie, I actually enjoy modern farmhouse cookies a lot more. Speaking of sweets, it was announced last week that the Sweet Palette Bakery has purchased the Hanford Portuguese Bakery at 10th and Grangeville and will be opening there this week. And of course, they'll be adding Portuguese bread to their menu. And speaking of 10th and Grangeville, construction on a new mini mart and gas station is well underway on the southwest corner of that busy intersection. It's always interesting to read these announcements online. You have to be careful though. I've fallen for a few of these announcements that were just speculation, not actual fact. I especially appreciate some of the people in our town who see it as their mission to keep everyone informed through Facebook posts, especially the positive ones.

Community Calendar And Submissions

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Now let's take a look at this week's community calendar. At the Thursday night marketplace this week, it's Farmers Appreciation Night with music by the Roots Rockers. Neighbor Bowl will be rocking on Thursday and Friday nights this week with Sierra Pacific playing on Thursday night and Hanford High Football playing on Friday night. Eric will have more about these matchups later in sports. On Saturday, September 5th, the City of Hanford will be hosting a free e-waste recycling event at the Corporation Yard at 900 South 10th Avenue from 8 a.m. until noon. Finally, the Hanford Gym and Mineral Show will be held this Saturday and Sunday in the Hanford Civic Auditorium from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you have an event coming up, large or small, and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to HanfordInsider at gmail.com. The Hanford Insider has the most comprehensive community calendar available at HanfordInsider.com.

Meet Lemoore College President Preston

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Well, summer vacation is over and school's officially back in session. And for this special episode on local educators, we have the unique opportunity to hear from James Preston, who is the current president of Lamore College. Several of my listeners recommended reaching out to James because some really good things are happening here at Lamore College, and I agree with them. I kind of feel like it's too good of a story not to cover. So welcome to the show, James. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. James, for people who may not know your story, um

From Musician To Career Educator

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take us back to the beginning. Uh, what brought you to education and ultimately to Lamar College?

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Wow. Um that's a great question. It's been a journey. Uh, so this is my 30, 32nd year in education. Um, started off as a high school English teacher out in Mendota, California, and share with many people that that really transformed me, not only as an educator, but as a human being. I just learned so much about the Central Valley. Um, didn't plan on going into teaching. Um, I graduated with my bachelor's degree from UC Santa Barbara, and I was a musician at the time. Um, and I was planning on making, you know, making good on that and did some substitute teaching. But my fiance at the time and now wife of 30 plus years, she was going through the credential program. Voracious reader, so I was checking everything out and realized how much I loved English. That was my bachelor's degree, and I loved working with people. And so uh that's when I decided to go into teaching. So, yeah, four, four, five years in Mendota, um, and then I had the the opportunity to come to West Hills Community College District in 2000 and started in a role, actually on a grant, uh, where I got to develop an education program and then also do some teaching and then continue teaching 11 years here, and then the last 15 years have been in administrative roles here at the college.

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So, what's kept you here for 25 years then?

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Oh my goodness. A couple of things. One, I think for me, I'm always looking for innovation and change and challenge. And Lamore College has always provided that for me. So whether it was when I was teaching, I had the opportunity to teach different classes, I had the opportunity to do some different grants and develop some programs. Each of the positions I've been here as a dean and VP and now as the president, just lots of opportunity and challenge. So, from a career perspective, the challenge, but more importantly, it's been the community. Um, we just have an unbelievable community here at Lemoore College. Our students are fantastic. We have an incredible staff, incredible faculty, just incredible people. And everybody's really bought in on our vision statement, which is the relentless pursuit of student success. And we live it out. It's not just a tagline, it's not just a vision statement that goes on the wall. And that determination to serve our students and help them potentially change the trajectory of their lives and their family lives is something that I really value. And I get to experience and do that in team every day with our crew here at L'More College.

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So, being a former teacher and faculty member, how does that um influence the way you approach being president?

SPEAKER_01 6:41

I think uh greatly uh because I'm very grounded in the classroom. 17 years, um, it was a big deal for me to leave the classroom. I didn't know if I wanted to do it. I had multiple opportunities where people asked me, hey, you should really apply for this dean position or this director position because we see leadership in you. But I just love the classroom. I love being with students, um, love the opportunity to educate. And so um I did make the decision. And I, as cheesy as it sounds, I went into education because I wanted to make a difference. And I wasn't sure in an administrative role if I could make a difference. And so, you know, when talking with my wife, it was like, I'm gonna do this for a year. And if it's not working, what the really cool thing about here is I have something called retreat rights. So having been a tenured faculty member, you have the ability to go back into the classroom. But after a year, I was sold and I, you know, realized that I could still have that same impact on students and get to do program design. I think it's been really helpful for me just because when you when you're an administrator, but you've had extensive experience in the classroom and you've done a pretty decent job at it, um, and you have what I call street cred. You know, I can talk shop, I can talk pedagogy and curriculum with our faculty and really try to understand how to support them better. Um, and you know, things change. There's so many things that have changed in education. It's been amazing to watch the changes through, you know, pre-COVID, during COVID, and now we're, you know, dealing with AI and different types of things and just the different way we approach education. But um at the heart of it all, I love education, I love teaching. And so I think it's had a big impact on the role I have now as president. We really value quality teaching and learning. And I would say that community college teachers are some of the best. Oftentimes um you hear about higher education. I mean, it's very lecture-oriented and it's sage from the stage and stand and deliver, and that is not our faculty at all. They really care about their craft, they care so much about our students. So I think some of the best teachers around are are in the community college ranks.

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You've

Enrollment Growth And Campus Expansion

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been here since 2000, and I have visited campus several times, but I cannot believe the growth of the campus. You have got students upon students. Just finding a place to park this morning is a challenge.

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Yep, the growth has been really exciting. Last year was our highest year ever for enrollment, and so we had about 8,500 uh headcount, and then we call it full-time equivalent students. So we're a little under 4,000, but that was a high for us. And yes, it's parking, it's a challenge, but it is free here at Lamore College. It's one of the great things, and it's uh it's a good problem to have. So I'm very happy when I can't find a parking spot and have to park on the street. But the growth has happened. It's happened in programs that we offer. It's happened with a number of different things. You know, when we first started back in 2003, we were primarily geared around academic programs and uh transfer degrees for students to be able to go into the four-year university. And the last eight to 10 years, we've really developed a lot more trade programs, vocational education to be able to get our students straight into the workforce. So those programs are growing. Um, our transfer degree programs are growing, just our footprint in general. You know, we're reaching out and offering a lot more high school classes, college classes at high school campuses. Um, and so we've like in, for example, this upcoming spring, we'll have 35 different classes from Lamore College that we'll be offering at various high schools. And so the growth is is happening for sure. And then also with facilities, you know, we just opened up our new visual arts and applied sciences building. Um, that's allow us to expand our health career programs, information technology, um, and art. And so uh, you know, we're on to the next. We're thinking about what's that next building, what's that next space that we need to provide for our students. Exciting time.

Student Demographics And Real Barriers

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Yeah, we talk about changing lives.

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Who is the typical Lamore College student today and how has that changed from when you started uh to 2026?

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I think our demographic has stayed the same. I think the way that we've served and supported our demographic has changed. So when you ask who is Lamore College, we're we're a Hispanic serving institution. Um, that's about 68 to 70% of our students. Um we're almost a two to one female to male ratio, and that's something that it's we have incredible. Our females are doing a really great job. We're really trying to work on our males, and that's a that's an issue. Men are disappearing from college and university all across the nation. So we're trying to be really intentional about bringing them back and providing programs for them. Our students are first generation, you know, for the most part. That, you know, first ones to go to college every year of graduation. We ask who's the first in the family to graduate, and a good chunk, good majority of our students stand up and we celebrate that with them and their families. And then our students are our communities that surround us, you know, it's Lemoore, it's Hanford, it's Corcoran, it's Avanall, it's Riverdale, it's Slayton, it's Caruthers. Probably gonna miss a couple there, but um, just smaller rural communities. Our strongest population is our students that come directly from high school. Um we've identified that as something in our new strategic plan, um, really focusing in on our adult learners. So those that are, you know, 25 to 29 years old or older that need to come back and work on getting career skills, coming back to college because maybe they didn't go straight away. And then a lot of our students suffer from socio and economic challenges. So we have, you know, one in three of our students suffers from food insecurity, and one in four from housing insecurity. And so these are things that we're highly aware of, and we built some structures to try and support them in that too.

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So let's talk about that structure that you've talked about, the the golden nest.

Golden Nest Support And Free CART

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Uh let's hear more about that.

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Yeah, so the golden nest is our basic needs center. It's in our student union, it's accessible to all of our students. And it started off pre-COVID. It started off as the pantry. Um, it was just a food pantry, very small area. And since we came back from COVID, we've expanded it. Um, we've actually put it in a new space that's larger. So we have an incredible partnership with KCAO and the food bank in Cal Viva that allows us to offer groceries to our students so they can up three or four days a week and get up to 10 items per day, which, as I mentioned before, when one and three has food insecurity, that's a huge help for them. Also at the Golden Nest, we have things that address housing insecurity. We have supports for students to help with mental health and counseling. Um, the one I'm really excited about right now is a brand new partnership we have with CART that allows our students to ride the car bus for free. So even if they're just taking one class with us, uh, they get their Lamore College student ID. We handed out 850 of those in the first two weeks of the semester. And on the Lamore College ID, they have a cart symbol in the corner. They just step onto CART, show them the Lemoire College ID. And for the next year, it's a pilot program. We have the funding for one year, and then we're hoping to expand it. But for one year they get to ride not only to and from the college, but also in the community, you know, whether it's to work, to grocery stores. And uh, it's a big deal for our students. You know, I share oftentimes we had a number of students that were riding the bus already that were parts of programs and got a bus pass, but it's more than that. I think transportation is such a huge barrier for our students. And whether it's, you know, a day like today where it's the 26th of the month and we don't have enough money to put gas in the tank so we can't come to class, or whether it's I'm in a family with six to eight people multi-generational, and there's one automobile, and each day a choice is made who gets to use the car and who gets to go to work and who gets to come to school. And so if we can remove these barriers like food insecurity and transportation, you know, then our students are set up for success when they get to our incredible faculty to be able to teach them.

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Now, I would put you on the spot and have you highlight maybe one or two particular programs, but I know you have so many. You have athletics, you have career technical education, uh, you have uh teacher education programs. So um I'll choose. I'll choose. And let's highlight the career and technical education program

Industrial Automation And Rockwell Partnership

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because I know that's important to local employers.

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Absolutely. So we've had, like I mentioned a little while ago, you know, we have had some traditional career tech ed programs. So, for example, our nursing program, um, our paramedic program have been around for a while. Our culinary hospitality program has been around. Those have been around really since the beginning of the college. Um, and those have expanded. And moving into the new visual arts applied sciences building for health careers, that top floor has allowed us to expand and um increase those programs in terms of capacity, which has been amazing. I would say one of the newer programs we have, which is really taking off, is industrial automation, um, industrial technology. So this is really in the line of um advanced manufacturing. And it's when we look at the labor market data for Kings County, it's healthcare, it's education, and it's manufacturing, and it's government jobs, right? Those are in agriculture, those are our top five. And that was the one spot, like manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, where we didn't have a program to meet Kings County labor market needs. And so that program was actually launched during COVID. Um, so the right the year we launched, COVID happened, but we still were able to kind of get it out of the gate. And now an incredible program that has both a credit program and a non-credit program. Um students come in, get the skills, and then are able to go straight into the workforce. Um, we work a lot with local industries for apprenticeships and to be able to get students in. And then we just in January will be launching a very exciting partnership with Rockwell. Um, so Rockwell produces what are called PLCs, which are programmable logic controls, which are kind of the heart, the mind behind manufacturing, um, the system behind manufacturing. So Rockwell will become the West Coast Training Academy for them, which means they'll be sending folks to Lamore, California to do a six-month program to get trained to be able to be certified, but it also opens it up for Kings County residents to take advantage of that same same curriculum. And that curriculum is very similar to what we already offer here locally. So a lot of manufacturing jobs coming to our area, and uh we're poised to really help prepare people for that workforce.

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Yeah, Kings County needs jobs and any efforts concentrated in those uh labor market, the specifically jobs in the career and technical area are so needed in our area, like you said, in all of those areas. And you mentioned

Building Local Teachers With Fresno State

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another program that you have that's very successful. As a former educator myself, I know that the education field is in dire need of more qualified educators. What's Lamore College doing to prepare students for that field?

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Oh man, we've been doing a lot and uh it's super exciting. I I'm with you. I think education is so important and then growing our own, right? So be able to take folks from the Kings County area and get them back into our Kings County schools is just so important. Uh, we've had a program around for a while called Team Teach. Uh, that's a program to support our future educators. So as they work towards their transfer degree, uh, they're getting a lot of support. They're getting job placements so they can work in after-school programs. Um, we do monthly events where they come and meet other educators. Um, they go out and do job shadowing, those types of things. Uh, they do trips to universities, they we have an annual conference. But Team Teach has been a program we've had for a while that's been really key. And then the next step to that is a new partnership that we have with Fresno State that we launched now two years ago. And so with Fresno State on campus at Lamore College, we're offering a bachelor's degree in liberal studies that leads to a multiple subject credential. That's called the ITEP program, integrated teacher education program. So we actually have two cohorts of those teachers. It's been incredible. So these students um are in our team teach program for two years, get their transfer degree, and then they start with Fresno State. And so within four years, they walk out with their bachelor's degree, their teaching credential ready to go back into the community. And so we're really excited about cohort one that is in their second year, and cohort two that just started uh a couple days ago here, and excited to see what happens with them.

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That is exciting. That's great that you're able to offer those opportunities for students. Um that's amazing. So, where's one area where you see more college uh that can become

Zero Textbook Cost And Fly Strong

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a real regional leader?

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Yeah, I think we've we've uh we've been a regional and statewide leader in a couple spaces before. And so that's been really exciting to be able to represent the valley. Um, one of those is with open educational resources. And so our college, we're 79% zero textbook cost courses. And so our faculty incredibly innovative. We called it the OER evolution. So it was a revolution against textbook costs and evolution of teaching and learning. And what our faculty have done have taken these open educational resources, um, so open textbooks, videos, articles, and they put them into a course shell. Um, and then that becomes a zero textbook cost course. So we've saved our students $13 million over the last seven or eight years as we've done this work. So that's that's an area where we have led regionally. Um, going forward, where we'd like to uh lead regionally, we have a brand new strategic plan that we just rolled out, um, got a board approved this summer. And uh we've had a framework for a number of years called the Strong Framework, which was to help our student around our student journey. So getting strong, which is helping students get ready to go to college, starting strong, um, staying strong, finishing strong, which is getting them to a degree, credential, or transfer. But we've added a new component and that's fly strong. And so it's really a commitment by Lemoore College that our commitment to the community does not end with just a student walking across a stage and getting their degree, but we want them to help succeed in that next step. So it's about community vibrancy, it's about economic mobility for their families and helping them to fly strong back into our community. And so that's where we're hoping we'll become a regional leader in the next five years, is really in line with that strategic plan, doing a lot more workforce readiness, workforce training, work-based learning. So when our students walk out of here, they're prepared for the workforce and they're stepping right into jobs, ready to go. So that's an area that we've done okay with. But I think it's one, like I mentioned, is going to be a key piece of our strategic plan going forward. You've been at Lamore College

Leadership Legacy And Student First Culture

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for decades now. Yeah, decades.

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Yeah, yeah, decades. Uh when it's all said and done and you turning your keys, what do you want your legacy to be to Lamore College?

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Oh man, that's a that's a really hard question. I think we talk around here with the Golden Eagles, so I think we talk about do just doing things at a high level, like at a gold standard. So I think for me, the legacy, I'm not a big person into legacy, but I think the legacy would just be to maintain the culture that we have. That this was a time where students were always put first. This was a time where we were innovative. This was a time where we gave back to our community and impacted our community together. So that would not be my legacy, that would be our legacy as a team. But my hope is that when that day comes, and I don't I don't I don't think it's too soon, but when that day comes, and like you said, you hand the keys in, that we would continue that. You know, that that just becomes part of the fabric of who we are ongoing. And I feel like that's what we get back from our community. I have uh just the privilege and honor of being the president here at the college. So daily, literally daily, I get to hear stories where people will come up to me and say, Oh man, I came over to the college the other day, and I got to tell you, like your front counter star staff were amazing, or had a really challenging fight financial situation and they were able to help me through. Or man, coach was coach changed my life, you know, advocated for me, got me on the court, got me on the field, got me on the mat, or this instructor, you know, was able to give me this education and they just cared for me. And so I get to hear all of those stories, and it's a really special place. So I guess that's that's the golden side of it, right? In terms of like making sure that we keep that. High level of student support and student focus. James, thank you so much for joining us on the show today.

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I know you're going to have a fantastic school year. I saw the smiles on the face. You mentioned office staff on my way in. That was one thing I was going to compliment you on. How right away when I walked in the doors, how can I help you? You know, that that's that's amazing. And uh I I know the community and the county of Kings has a tremendous educational leader in you, and thank you for all that you're doing for um us here in Kings County.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Thank you. We're blessed to be part of Kings County, and uh we're excited to keep going and serve serve Kings County for sure. So thank you so much. I appreciate the time.

Sports Report And Final Scores

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And now it's time for Hanford Insider Sports with Eric Bentley.

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The Apaches were the better team in the first half as the Bullpups struggled to get into the rhythm, trailing at halftime 17 to nothing. But whatever Coach Cannon Sanchez's locker room speech was, it worked because Hanford High came alive in half number two. After stalling out on their first possession in the third quarter, the offense found its stride driving down the field, capped off by a 21-yard Jaron Mao to Braylon Thomas touchdown connection to get the Bullpups on the board. But Sanger would answer with a touchdown to start the fourth to make it a 24-7 game. Then the comeback was on. Jaron Mao would find Kai Burna for a touchdown to make the score twenty-four to fourteen. The Bullpubs defense forced a three and out, and with a short field, the offense was able to find the end zone again on the second Mao to Thomas hookup of the night to bring the Bullpubs to within three. Hanford High's defense rose to the occasion, getting the ball back to the offense quickly, who was able to work down the field and take a 28-24 lead thanks to a 13-yard rushing touchdown from Rajon Newton. The defense would seal the deal by forcing a fumble that was recovered by Karsten Gravens, completing the comeback for the 28-24 win. Another tough opponent awaits this week as the Bullpups will play host to San Joaquin Memorial at Neighbor Bowl at 7 30. The Sierra Pacific football team was able to bounce back from a tough loss at Chowchilla last week with a 29-27 win over Strathmore. The Spartans held a 20-14 lead at the half, but the Golden Bears would find the end zone twice in the third quarter to take a 29-20 lead. Strathmore would add a late touchdown, but Sierra Pacific would hang on for the 29-27 win. The 1-1 Golden Bears will take on Corcoran this Thursday at 7 30. And the Hanford West football team fell to Mendota last Friday to drop to 1-1 on the year. The Aztecs held a 14-0 lead at the half. The Huskies would find the end zone in the third, but Mendota would also put up a sixth spot in the frame. The Huskies added six more points in the fourth, but were unable to get any more as the Aztecs prevailed 20-12. Hanford West will face off with Riverdale this Thursday at 7 15. Out to the pool now. It was a busy week for all of the water polo teams. Let's catch you up on the scores that we've got. The Sierra Pacific Girls split their two games last week, falling to Lamore on Tuesday before taking down Centennial 9-5 in a rematch of last year's Valley Championship game. The Sierra Pacific Boys beat Lamore on Tuesday, then beat Yosemite in tournament play on Friday before falling to Kingsburg in a close 9-8 match. The Golden Bear Boys also picked up a pair of wins on Saturday against Stockdale and the Redwood JV squad. The Hanford West Boys water polo team was on a roll last week, picking up four wins in five days. The action started Tuesday with a six to four win over El Diamante. Thursday, the Huskies got the better of Hanford High 16-4, then picked up a pair of wins in tournament play over Exeter and Tular Western. The Hanford West girls picked up a pair of wins over El Diamante 9-6 and Hanford High 18-12. As for the Bullpups, aside from those losses to Hanford West, the only other score reported for either teams is a 15-6 loss to Kingsburg for the boys squad. And into the gym now where all three volleyball teams took the court multiple times this week. Sierra Pacific went 2-1, falling to Telerie Western in five sets early in the week before bouncing back with a pair of straight set victories over Dainuba and Sunnyside. The Hanford West volleyball team split their two games last week, the loss to Tular Union and the win over Hanford High, with both of those results coming in five sets. And Hanford High Volleyball is still looking for their first win after falling to Hanford West, Exeter, and Justin Garza twice last week. As always, if you have a score report or a team update for any team in any sport at any level, you can let us know by emailing HanfordInsider at gmail.com. I'm Eric Bentley, and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.

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Well,

Support The Show And Stay Connected

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that wraps things up for this week's show. If you're enjoying the podcast and want to support it, you can head over to buymeacoffee.com forward slash Hanford Insider to make a donation. Or you can Venmo me directly. To stay connected, join the Hanford Insider email list at HanfordInsider.com. You'll get weekly updates plus an exclusive newsletter delivered right to your inbox each Wednesday. I'd also really appreciate your help getting the word out about the show by liking and sharing posts on social media, or honestly, like most people, just telling a friend. Don't forget, if you have a story idea, community event, or someone you think deserves to be featured, I'd love to hear from you. Email me anytime at HanfordInsider at gmail.com. You can follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, and YouTube at Hanford Insider for more content and updates. Thanks for listening. Enjoy the cooler weather and have a great week.