The vocational-technical education program at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) is one thing that helps to set it apart from the private high schools threatening its survival.

But over the years, the program, dubbed "vo-tech" for short, has deteriorated into disorganization.

The school's overall curriculum restructuring has left the entire school in a state of flux. But this is just the tip of the iceberg for the vo-tech program, which faces larger and more serious structural problems.

One of the problems is its lack of consistent leadership. Over the last 15 years, the program has seen five different leaders come and go.

Vo-tech offers instruction in eight trades, from carpentry to graphic arts to auto mechanics. This fall has been a particularly rocky time for vo-tech.

The school year began with the revelation that more than 50 incoming ninth-graders had signed up to take technical classes not at CRLS, but at the Minuteman Vocational Technical Academy, a private school in Lexington.

School officials offered that option to eighth-graders for the first time last spring. But they only budgeted for 10 students, which translates into a shortfall for this year's school budget.

Then, last month, a state audit of CRLS' technical arts courses found violations in practically every area, from curriculum to safety procedures. Unless those problems are fixed by this spring, the state could decertify Cambridge's programs.

Yesterday, the interim vo-tech director submitted a list of recommendations to district administrators, suggesting ways of fixing the problems the audit found.

In the midst of this turmoil, the technical arts department lacks permanent leadership. Last Sunday, the school district officially posted a job listing for a new "executive director of vocational education," a post officials hope to fill this spring.

In the meantime, the future of vocational education in Cambridge is uncertain, says Jimmy Ravanis, who coordinates vo-tech internships at CRLS.

"We're left in this limbo," he says.

Answering the Audit

State auditors last month either revoked or put on probation every vo-tech program offered at CRLS, from culinary arts to electronics.

Last month, Superintendent of Schools Bobbie J. D'Alessandro met with vo-tech teachers to discuss the audit results, which she said showed "serious flaws" in CRLS' programs.

"I think I have a dedicated staff," she said in December. "They'd better be able to meet those expectations. There aren't going to be any choices."

Tom Lividoti, interim director of vocational education, says not all of the violations the state found were as serious as D'Alessandro suggested. Some violations, like the lack of advisory committees for each vocational program, were "cosmetic," he says. He adds that teachers have already begun to fix many of the problems.

But Lividoti, who taught electrical classes for 23 years at CRLS before becoming interim director, says he does not take issue with D'Alessandro's approach.

"She kind of laid it on the line with them and I'm happy she did," he says.

Lividoti says he tries to visit each technical shop every day. As he makes his rounds, he says he sees some of the same problems state auditors saw, like students not working diligently during class time.

"I know when kids are on task," he says. "Kids should be on task and too many times that is not true."

Lividoti says he even agrees with some of the audit's findings. For example, graduation requirements at CRLS mean students taking vo-tech classes can only spend one period a day learning their trade. The state requires that students take at least two hours of technical instruction each day.

Lividoti says he plans to use the audit as leverage to push for more resources. For starters, that means buying state-of-the-art equipment for some shops where state auditors found the machinery inadequate.

He submitted a list of equipment along with his recommendations to district administrators yesterday, and says he's hopeful for success.

"I bet you we get this new equipment," Lividoti says.

Stepping Up or Scaling Back

D'Alessandro has suggested scaling back vocational education at CRLS and offering courses in just three to five trades--down from the current eight offerings.

She says she still sees a place for vo-tech at the high school and is "committed" to bringing programs in hotel management, biotechnology and information technology.

"We have an opportunity to make this very special for kids," she says of technical classes. "There's a large majority that need this for the trades they want to go into."

But Lividoti disagrees. Unless CRLS continues to offer classes in at least five technical areas, the state will not offer certification, he says.

He adds that trades currently taught at CRLS offer students relatively lucrative careers once they graduate.

"You don't have to be a top economist," he says. "As long as the Big Dig is here...any kid can go out and make, even as an apprentice, $10 to $15 an hour."

One of the problems facing vo-tech is the broad appeal of its offerings but the limited number of students who actually want to learn a trade.

Most students taking auto mechanics, for instance, want to learn how to fix their own cars, not train to be auto mechanics, Lividoti says.

On one hand, vo-tech teachers say this makes their courses important for all students.

"A lot of these are generic skills. They're life skills almost," says electronics teacher Tony Russo.

But on the other hand, the preponderance of students who want to dabble in a trade means it is harder to offer in-depth training courses.

Lividoti says the current system isn't ideal but has one major advantage: It means vo-tech courses attract many students. The vo-tech department can boast that more than half of CRLS' students take its courses, even though few of them are there to learn a trade for career purposes.

"Numbers are the game," he says.

If It Ain't Broke...

When CRLS was restructured this fall, students and teachers were divided up into five small schools. And that meant breaking up the vo-tech teachers, who previously had worked together.

That's not the system that vo-tech teachers had wanted. They thought that vocational teachers could remain together and offer technical arts classes to all students at CRLS.

"We were going to be the hub and other schools would be the spokes...We thought that was the best of both worlds," Russo says.

Now, most small schools only offer limited technical arts options, since there are not enough teachers in each trade to go around to all five schools.

One exception is school five, which is the only school to require that ninth-graders take a survey course in the technical and fine arts. Students alternate between short units like dance, carpentry, photography and electronics.

If all of the small schools adopted that approach, vo-tech teachers say that might be an improvement over the old system.

"It's probably better because a student has not only the technical arts but other exposure," Russo says.

Dan Owusu, who teaches graphic arts, will be teaching the visual arts unit for the school five exploratory this spring. He says he is looking forward to the class but he wants to cover painting, drawing and sculpting and wonders if a five-week unit will allow students to get a feel for the visual arts.

"I think visual arts takes a whole year," he says. "I need to sit with each kid to make sure the kids get the personal lessons they need."