Wednesday, June 26, 2024

@mocoboe Lets Staff Kill Trade Programs. @mcps Teacher Cries Out: "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?"


Public comment presented to the Montgomery County Board of Education on February 22, 2024 below.

More from this MCPS teacher on March 14, 2024 at this link. 

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.

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/D32J6U4B9F02/$file/Board of Education speach.pdf

1 comment:

  1. 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...

    ReplyDelete

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