Public comment presented to the Montgomery County Board of Education on February 22, 2024 below.
Dr. Felder and members of the board of Education,
My name is Raul Ortiz, and I am here to advocate for high school CTE students.
• Our local demand for automotive technicians in our areas is extremely
high. Many Automotive shops and Collision centers have a wait time of
months to fix a car. Insurance companies are having to buy back vehicles
because the length of time to provide their customers with rental cars are
no longer affordable. Local dealerships are looking to hire and train every
student that we can provide.
• The Damascus Automotive program is currently running at full capacity.
We have to turn away students and it’s the same with Gaithersburg and
Seneca Valley HS which are the next closest automotive programs.
• Students at Clarksburg HS only have the option of Thomas Edison HS for
automotive, which is in Silver Spring and it’s too far away to be a viable
option. Thomas Edison also has a waitlist each year for their programs
and many students are not selected to participate.
• As you know, the Maryland State Department of Education recently
passed a law -called “Blueprint”. This law is based on the lack of trained
and qualified people in our service industries. This law mandates that at
least 40% of our students leaving school will have industry recognized
credentials or will have participated in a career oriented apprenticeship.
This is exactly what the automotive programs currently accomplish
through our close partnership with the Automotive Trades Foundation.
Any student that chooses to seek employment in the industry are
connected to a place of employment. Percentage wise, the Foundation
programs produce more industry certifications than any other high
school program.
• Damascus program is an obvious solution to support the Clarksburg
students that want to participate in auto technology. The new Damascus
High school could be designed as a state of the art facility and bus over
students from Clarksburg HS.
• What is the issue? The MCPS Construction design team is proposing to
eliminate the Damascus program in the new build. What sense does this
make? They say that the program is too expensive and takes up too much
space. I don’t feel like either of those arguments are valid. Most of the
equipment can be transferred over and we use Federal funding to buy
new equipment, NOT MCPS dollars. The New High School will be 50%
larger, so space should not be an issue.
• Furthermore, they have closed a program that served overflow from
Gaithersburg high school and the CREA program that operated at the
Shady Grove bus depot. This was an ideal partnership that successfully
operated for 8 years. This ATF dealer HUB is vital to the future of the ATF
programs.
• MCPS continually talks about providing access to ALL students, but
currently their actions are exactly the opposite. Why is this? Why do the
Construction and Transportation departments dictate what
programs go where? Why are we trending in the opposite direction of
our businesses needs and the opposite direction of MD state law? I feel
that MCPS is in broken state and that our priorities are aligned with
people that are making decisions that make things easiest on them and
we need to get back to doing what is best for our students and that is
delivering world class career education opportunities.
Please include the FULL Automotive and Hospitality programs in the
design of the new Damascus High School. And please support the ATF
automotive HUB site at a central location to all ATF programs.
Very short-sighted to do away with the Damascus program. I bet they can find the money if they want to. I'd be glad to point out some programs that should go...
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