Greendale High School Students Petition to Keep Auto Program

Four Greendale High School students asked the school board last night to bring back the cancelled auto program.

Juniors Joseph Jankowski, Nate Van Ells, Jess Horbinski, and Nick Tetzlaff have been or are currently enrolled in the program. They received a letter from the school district informing them that the auto program was cancelled. The students generated a petition that resulted in about 275 signatures from their peers.

Jankowski told the board that Greendale schools have always had strong art, music and academic programs and as of recently he has  found more students getting involved in hands-on-learning, such as auto.

The auto job market may not be as big as it once was but learning how to change a tire and brake pads are important skills, said Jankowski.

The students said that learning the basics of auto repair was a needed skill for any driver.

“It’s not just for the guys,” Horbinski said. “There are many girls, like myself, that would like to learn how to maintain their cars because in these economic times everyone should have a basic knowledge how to keep their cars from falling apart so that they don’t have to spend money on trying to fix it.”

The students said that auto instructor Michael Fels told them that over 70 students were enrolled in the intro program, over 30 enrolled in advanced and over 30 enrolled in consumer auto.

“As I walk into auto I see smiles on all the students,” Van Ells said. “Even after auto class I walk down the halls and hear people talk about joining auto next year or just about what we learned that day.”

The auto program started as a partnership with Milwaukee Area Technical Colleges and southside dealerships. Greendale students at some point of the program would work on cars in the dealerships under supervision, said Superintendent William Hughes.

Hughes said that the MATC program went downhill when there was a struggle for communication between school districts and MATC. Students were meant to get college credits from the program while in high school, however, once students entered MATC the credits would not transfer and the class had to be retaken, said Hughes.

Cars were then provided by MATC and the dealerships.

The cost of a MATC instructor started to exceed the cost of the current teacher.

Students enrolled in the program have the option to enroll in other classes or the youth options program, in which students can enroll at institutions of higher education in Wisconsin while in high school. However, Hughes said he has heard of complaints about transportation to other institutions.

Hughes advised the students to turn in the petition to the board and to set up a meeting with high school principal Steve Lotus, which he would also attend.

The board expressed their gratitude towards the students for voicing their opinions.

The discussion will continue at a June school board meeting.