Last night, the Tyrone Area School Board voted on changes to its career and technology program.
\nThe administration had proposed adding a protective services program and eliminating its automotive mechanics program. The board approved the protective services program designed to provide training in law enforcement, fire fighting and emergency services. In a separate motion, the board voted 5 to 3 to eliminate the automotive mechanics program.
\nSuperintendent Dr. William N. Miller had previously said, \u201cWe are offering it, on the one hand, because of the demand and the interest of the students. On the other hand, we are dropping a much more expensive program in auto tech.\u201d
\nThe yearly cost of the new program will be about $50,000, which includes the instructor\u2019s salary, benefits and class materials. High School Principal Dr. Rebecca Erb said about 50 students had signed up for the protective services program. The automotive mechanics program had about 20 students signed up for the 2006-07 school year. Dr. Miller said enrollment in the program had been dwindling and had been at about 20 students the last couple of years.
\nThe district estimated the cost of the automotive program would be about $95,000 had it been kept on-site for the next school year. The figure included salary, benefits and a $35,000 in equipment. An expense that the district said was ongoing to kept the auto shop updated.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s always a concern when you have to eliminate a program,\u201d said Dr. Miller. \u201cWith a certain amount of grief, we had to look at it and evaluate it, with the number of students participating in the program it\u2019s basically prohibitive.\u201d
\nDr. Miller had previously said students enrolled in the automotive program were offered \u201ca second choice.\u201d The district plans to send letters to the students who had selected automotive mechanics informing them of the elimination of the program. The affected students will be encouraged to come in to the school to work selecting another option.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re going to encourage them to look at some other program possibilities,\u201d said Dr. Miller. \u201cWe might try to incorporate some small engine repair into the ag shop to compliment some of those programs and provide opportunities for the students. Our first effort is to provide a program for the kids here.\u201d
\nThose students still wanting to participate in the automotive program will have to pass a test to qualify for placement at the Greater Altoona Career & Technology Center. The cost is $5,000 per student to attend the technology center\u2019s automotive program.
\nSchool board members Peter Dutrow, Brian Bressler and Ray Detwiler opposed the elimination of the district\u2019s on-site automotive mechanics program.
\nDutrow said, \u201cI\u2019m very proud of our vocational program and the job we\u2019re doing. I just hate to see us lose those programs. I can\u2019t endorse it.\u201d
\nDutrow mentioned a couple of vocational programs had been eliminated.
\nBressler said he didn\u2019t agree with wording in the motion to eliminate the automotive program that said it was \u201cin the best interests of the students.\u201d
\n\u201cThat\u2019s a false statement,\u201d said Bressler. \u201cThe state\u2019s department of education makes us put that wording in that motion. I\u2019m not in agreement with that statement. I\u2019d much rather not see it (the automotive program) eliminated.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve really had a good program here over the years,\u201d said Bressler. \u201cI\u2019d really like to see it continue in some form. I don\u2019t want to see our vocational program here die completely.\u201d
\nDetwiler said, \u201cIt\u2019s a shame the rest of the board members (those voting to eliminate the program) didn\u2019t think it was important enough to keep in place and to keep funding.\u201d
\nThe votes by the school board last night allow the district to seek approval from the state\u2019s Department of Education for the changes. Dr. Miller said the approval from the PDE is a formality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last night, the Tyrone Area School Board voted on changes to its career and technology program. The administration had proposed adding a protective services program and eliminating its automotive mechanics program. The board approved the protective services program designed to provide training in law enforcement, fire fighting and emergency services. In a separate motion, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}