Why is auto shop being dropped at ECHS
A recent letter to the Editor of the San Mateo Daily Journal by former South City resident Pete Rio was shared on ESC facebook page and it brought about a lively conversation. The concern was Auto Shop would no longer be available on the El Camino campus and the value that course offers as a lifetime skill.
Everything South City contacted the district superintendent and the school board, and included our new City Councilmember Liza Normandy. Normandy previously was elected to our school board and it seemed worthy to keep her in the conversation.
School board president Maurice Goodman contacted ESC to advise there did not seem to be enough students interested in the auto shop to fill a full class, as as there were only approximately 14 students interested.Within 2 days of our inquiry we received the following response from Superintendent Hogan with a list of electives to be offered at either of our high schools.
Weekly communications with the district
We have also set up a communication tool which will only be as good as the community’s input. Everything South City is asking the public to submit to us any questions regarding our schools. We will pick a few and submit them on Monday with Superintendent Hogan providing answers by the following Monday. There maybe times when it will take up to 2 weeks to gather information for some answers and some issues such as Human Resource concerns maybe confidential due to federal laws. Please direct your questions to [email protected] and watch our weekly discourse.
What electives will be available at the high schools
Everything South City asked: What electives are going to be offered next year and at which school?
El Camino High School will be offering the following elective courses for the 2014-2015 school year:
- Freshman Seminar
- AVID
- Creative Writing
- Dance I, II, III, and Advanced
- Exploring Computer Science (New for 2014-2015)
- Film as Literature
- Leadership
- Yearbook
- Video Arts I, II, III
- Photo I,II, III (includes digital photo)
- Music (includes symphonic, Jazz I, II , and Advanced, and Chorus)
- Drama I,II, III, and Advanced
- P.E. – Weightlifting and Circuit training
- Peer Advisors
- Work Experience
South San Francisco High School will be offering the following elective courses for the 2014-2015 school year:
- French 1, 2, 3, 4
- Italian 1, 2, 3, 4AP
- Spanish 1, 2, 3, 4AP
- Spanish for Native Speakers 1, 2
- Art 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
- Ceramics 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
- Jazz Ensemble, Symphonic Band, Concert Band
- Dance 1, 2, 3, 4
- Ballet Folklorico (Beg, Int, Adv)
- Drama 1, 2, 3, 4
- Chorus
- Music Appreciation
- Photography 1, 2; Advanced Digital Photography
- Video Art 1, 2
- Auto 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
- Computer Keyboarding
- Electronics 1, 2
- Ethnic Studies
- Web Page Design
- Woods 1, 2, 3, 4
- Yearbook
Letter to Editor of San Mateo Daily Journal
Editor,
I am a former student of South San Francisco Unified School District and I heard El Camino High School is eliminating auto shop. Auto shop provides students with skills leading to successful careers providing job security. Also, Auto Shop teaches students to become self-reliant. Studies have suggested that through “Project-based learning”, students learn better and develop everyday math and physics skills from completion of successful projects. Various mathematical concepts such as the Pythagorean Theorem, fractions and geometry all come to play when auto shop students take measurements needed to develop their projects. Auto shop also teaches students the value of persistence, to keep trying, even after they made a mistake until they succeed. There have been studies that initiative and hard work may be more critical to success than intelligence. Auto shop is one of the few places in high school where students explore others skills. Bottom line, every high school student can benefit from a year of auto shop for improvement in math skills. To all parents, I urge you to speak your high school administration and support auto shop. High school students’ educational future may be at stake.
Pete Rio
Replies to this letter that were posted on ESC FB pg:
Tegan Agustin Is there anything that can be done to prevent this?? Will administration listen??
Everything South City to Tegan Agustin We have sent an email and will update as soon as we receive a reply. Thanks! {ksw}·
Adele Rios Yeah we really need auto at ECHS, my little bro is special ed there and he wouldn’t have known he is a natural with cars if he hadn’t taken that class!
Laura Alban Walsh Is this due to the LCAP funding?
Kym Tambini Nice job Pete.
Pete Rios Thanks Kym! : )
Bonnie Tognetti Not all children flourish and learn while sitting at a desk. In the school district where we lived, the Vo-Tech program included not only auto shop (where the donated cars were auctioned off to sustain the program costs) but also a house building program and a slew of others for hairdressing, nursing, etc. Find a sponsor and continue this program.
Phil Fioresi Sr. Exactly Bonnie, I posted my rant (not sure where it went) but I agree 100% our school district or at least El Camino High School has lost their way. We need our young men and women to be prepared to take on hands on jobs, if we don’t teach them who will build our houses or fix the plumbing and electrical, set the tile floor or fix your car? We all show our support for Eric Jacobson when he is pushing for a football field where is he now when the Auto Shop is being eliminated?
Everything South City to Phil Fioresi Sr. your post is under POSTS TO PAGE rather than as a comment to this thread. We will re-post it directly. Thanks.
Everything South City From Phil Fioresi Sr. on this subject as posted under POSTS TO PAGE:
I would like to comment on the Auto Shop Issue at El Camino High School. First they need more shop classes, wood shop, metal shop and electrical shop. Our school district seems to think we only need Dr’s, Lawyers, Accountants and CEO’s.
We need to have kids with practical experience, there are plenty of good jobs out there like plumbers, mechanics, sheet metal and so on. I can only speak for EL Camino since both my kids went there but they are totally screwed up when it comes to whats best for the kids.
My kids could not even pick classes the actually wanted most of the time. Not only are they not helping out kids in that manner but their Girls sports programs are virtually forgotten about as far as the Administration is concerned. They don’t even consider the female athletes wanting to play in college, the facts are in the numbers. Girls Soccer record 1-10-2 Girls Basketball 8-15 Girls Vollyball 1-10 Girls Softball 1-9 currently. We all show up to get our new Million Dollar field then they close Auto Shop, this sucks!
John C. Baker This is tied to standardized testing, which makes math and English “bully” subjects because that’s what is tested — and thus what federal funding is based upon. All the money free to be spent on academics is spent there. Arts, vocational training, science all suffer because of such testing.
Phil Fioresi Sr. All the while they just spent 4+ million on a football field
John C. Baker Problem was the field was paid for with a bond, which is by law required to be used for construction. You could BUILD an auto shop (or a science building, which they did), but you can’t pay an auto shop teacher with it.
Phil Fioresi Sr. The bond also bought equipment I believe for the science rooms and paid for upgrading bathrooms, Is it your belief that they are doing away with auto shop to get rid of a teachers salary?
Phil Fioresi Sr. All I know is what I learned in Auto Shop, Wood Shop & Metal Shop in High School has been invaluable to me in my life so far.
Brandi Magner I think it may have a lot to do with the retirement of the shop teacher. I hope they continue shop and bring back more practical learning
Hugh-John Fleming It is too difficult to unionize auto techs so teacher unions want to eliminate it from curriculum. Get with it folks. Schools are run for the unions not for your children.
Patrick Kucera If this is due to funding issues why the hell would they get a new football field with all the bells and whistles when the funding could have been used more wisely.
Phil Fioresi Sr. Hugh, really? So in your mind it’s political? come on
Sheila Folan Cronin My son took Auto this year at El Camino. They had to combine Auto 1 and 2…. so maybe there aren’t enough kids interested in taking it. ?
Phil Fioresi Sr. Patrick my thoughts exactly, more so where are the people who were all over the place asking for the public support for the football field? They seem to only care about what affects them directly? Like I said before my two kids both attended El Camino and the cronyism that goes on in that school is over the top. Kids don’t matter, it’s up to the parent and only the parent to advocate for their kid, there’s not a full time employee at that place that will stand up for a student if it means taking a stand against another teacher or Administration.
Lane Smith SSFUSD has a Facebook page also. You should repost this there as well!
Mary Ann Murphy I am a senior citizen. We NEED auto shop in our schools. It is important for a driver to know how to do basic maintenance/checks on a car. It should be a required subject for all students in High School. In my life, I have met many people who do not check their oil. They wait until the “oil” light shows on their dash. I was born, raised and schooled in San Francisco. We all knew and know that the best running and sounding cars come from El Camino High School! Please keep auto shop.
Sean Byrd This is what happens when we convince kids they HAVE to go to college to have any kind of future. Trades are no longer taught or appreciated in schools. It’s a shame.
Phil Fioresi Sr. Sean good point, on more than one occasion i had to argue with a counselor about classes my kids should take, their plan for MY kid was to take classes to prepare them for a university MY plan was to get them through High School make it a good experience and a workload they could be successful with then go to a JC to figure out what they really wanted to do with their life. It’s amazing how these people want to make decisions for YOUR kids. All the while they (teachers & administration) have each others backs never taking a stand as an advocate for any kid.
Mark Schwery I talked to the principle and told him we need more shops my grandson isn’t doing good if they had shops it would give him something to look forward to not every kid goes to collagei took 3 shops per every year helped me become a machinest but then that’s before then sent all our jobs to china
Phil Fioresi Sr. Mark, what did the principal say, did he just give you some double talk?
Pete Rios I am Pete Rios, the author of this editorial. I want to thank everyone for their feedback. Your continued support for auto shop is most encouraged! I will write another editorial to support another endangered class, Home Economics.
Replies to this letter that were posted on San Mateo Daily Journal online forum:
Jack Kirkpatrick · Top Commenter · Stanford University
With the demise of the Regional Occupational Program in San Mateo County and statewide we are losing a fast-track job-training. The flexibility of ROP is vital. Programs in community college are not always efficient due to their compartmentalization. For example, automotive technology may be in three parts, one part per semester whereas, ROP was designed to move students through the training process as a student gains his skills. It is seamless so that many students do not need to wait around for part two, part three…!
In computers proficiency in keyboarding leads to training in various programs as fast as the student can consume the knowledge/training over a shorter period of time.
The sooner we can train people in their profession, the sooner they may be hired. As soon as people can start earning money, they may decide to return to college.
[…] To see the list of electives to be offered at SSFHS and ECHS please click HERE […]
[…] has much controversy over the elimination of electives at El Camino High School, namely Auto Shop. Everything South City has received information from the District […]
Letter to the Editor of San Mateo Daily Journal;
Letter: The importance of auto shop
May 20, 2014, 05:00 AM Letter
Editor,
I am writing this to support the letter written by Mr. Pete Rios (Letters-5/12 “The Value of Auto Shop”). I am the automotive teacher whose program is being closed this fall. In the more than 45 years I have been teaching automotives, I have seen countless students mature and flourish into skilled productive adults. Many have pursued successful automotive careers in engineering, business or simply working as technicians. Most learned basic math and science, organizational skills, the proper use and care of tools and the importance of getting with others despite of their differences in my classes.
Unfortunately, many administrators, although well-meaning, are totally out of touch with the real world and the needs and interests of the total school population. At our school, even though only 30 percent of our seniors attend a four-year university, the entire curriculum centers around A-G requirements for university admission. Administrators boast about the number of graduating seniors that will be attending a university but neglect to tell you the number of students earning a four year degree. The numbers will surprise you.
Meanwhile, what do we offer a large segment of the student population who have decided to attend a community college or pursue a vocational or technical career? Our automotive students can earn college credits, learn automotive computers and basic diagnostic skills. Yet it has been decided that automotive technology is not a 21st-century program and should be replaced by biogenetics.
Every single person I have spoken to, faculty members, community leaders, etc., think this is wrong. If you agree, be proactive, attend school board meetings and demand your elected officials hold administrators accountable.
Jim Cresta
San Bruno
http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/opinions/2014-05-20/letter-the-importance-of-auto-shop/1776425123438.html
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I think its funny that people will complain about a school trying to prepare their students to be eligible for a 4 year university/college. Do you want your child to succeed through high school but then realize his/her Junior year that they will not have the necessary classes to apply to college. Yes you are right that not everyone goes to college, but why not prepare them for it. High school is a time to grow. Some students go from bad to good in four years and vice versa. I am sorry but teachers are not selfish. How do you think they will just think about themselves?? Have you seen their pay scale??? SSFUSD is one of the lowest paying school district in the county. Don’t worry I am not defending ECHS admins or any other ones, what I am defending is the idea that admins and teachers are trying to put their students on a path to apply to a 4 yr university/college. The difference between private school and public school is not just the 15-20k a year, but the manner in which the admins and teachers prepare their students for the next level. And if you think private school teachers get paid very well, you are mistaken. Here is the link to the archdiocese of san francisco collective bargaining agreement for 2011-2014 and of the pay scale of SSFUSD.
Archdiocese of SF – http://sfaft.ca.aft.org/files/article_assets/DD772EF5-D55E-7820-14637171241464CB.pdf
SSFUSD- http://ssfusd.ca.schoolloop.com/file/1237871338267/1365835951263/1158835275662756931.pdf
Here’s the thing, first every student is different with different needs as well as aspirations saying all students should fall into the same category will most definitely not work, but that’s what they do. Second when I was in high school and yes it was long ago, students were able to pick their classes, not the case now at EC. Third, shop classes can be invaluable for some students, to think that everybody will or should be prepared to go to a 4 year college is unrealistic. Why is there such a difference in the amount of electives between our two high schools? My daughter is a senior at EC and is taking psychology as an elective because there’s nothing else to take, really? To think that Wood Shop, Metal Shop, Auto Shop are worthless classes is stupid in my opinion. Those are classes 9 out of 10 people would benefit from more than Calculus in the real world. And no one has said teachers are overpaid although I personally think some definitely do not earn their money. Also as far as El Camino is concerned they are way behind SSFHS as far as preparing our female athletes to continue to play into college. There are lots of colleges willing to offer partial or full scholarships to athletes, but I don’t know of one college willing to look at a team with a 1-10. 2-10 record.
Sue if you had to deal with the administration over at ECHS you would see they do not have the best interest of the kids in mind. I believe they do whats best for themselves not for the kids. I’ve had 2 kids there spanning over 8 years and it’s unbelievable how things are going at least when Principal Berg was there she would listen. I have seen 4 parents within 2 years have legitimate complaints (one being me) and nothing was done, not a thing. And all were complaints regarding the same issue. Also not one student was asked a question about the issue. The kids input should be considered, this is more proof of what some teachers and all administration at ECHS think about what matters to parents and students. The cronyism runs deep in that school and parents and students have three options, 1 being a crony or 2 sending your kid to another school or 3 live with it.
I agree that non academic electives are needed. Not everyone can go to college. Why is it that ECHS is the “Cinderella” High School. Why does SSFHS have so many more elective options including elective that are offered for four years?
I grew up in South City at a time when the school district couldn’t build fast enough to accommodate the student population. Filling a class was never a problem. Times are different nowadays so I understand the powers that be have to make some tough choices.Perhaps the auto program can be moved off-site to a nearby dealership?
Good idea Bonnie, or maybe those kids at El Camino who are interested in auto shop can be can given special dispensation to go over to South City High for a period each day in order to take the class.