Many students never set foot in the north wing of Gloucester High School, where rows of desks and blackboard space give way to table saws, engine lathes and hydraulic lifts.
The four industrial arts shops — carpentry, electrical technology, machine technology and automotive — have been fixtures in the high school for decades. But as expectations for students now increasingly include college, Gloucester's vocational teachers are working to make sure residents know the programs are still around, and vital.
"Sometimes, kids will wander in here and I have to tell them that this is the carpentry program; they think it is maintenance," carpentry teacher Dana Griffin said this week from his shop. "Somehow in all the shuffle, sometimes we get lost."
Complicating their challenges, local vocational programs are often more vulnerable to budget tightening than other programs and face competition from regional vocational schools, such as North Shore Technical High School in Middleton, which has an inherent resource advantage.
"We just want people to know that we are here," Griffin said. "It seems like the regional schools get a lot of attention. We would like to be full."
All five of the high school's vocational teachers are alumni of the programs and remember times when shop classes had waiting lists instead of empty spots.
To try to counteract the draw of the regional schools and bolster classes hurt by budget cuts, Gloucester vocational programs are maximizing their interaction with the community to give students real-world learning experiences where some of the costs can be borne outside the school. In 2004, the carpentry program left the safety of the shop and began building a house for a local Riverdale resident for the cost of materials, around $200,000. In addition to saving the owners labor costs, students were given the opportunity to learn as they would in the trade.
This year, the class is tackling an even bigger job, a 4,000-square-foot Lanesville house with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a two-car garage, plenty of light and deck views of Ipswich Bay.
In addition to its house-building operation, the carpentry program makes wooden sheds to order for the cost of materials. In a good year, the program can turn out 14 sheds.
The carpentry program, which is the only one with two teachers, now has around 35 students enrolled, out of a maximum of 55.
The electrical program also takes advantage of the house project, installing the wiring for the home.
At the building site in Lanesville this week, around a dozen students scrambled around the house, which is expected to be completed some time in November.
"It is a better hands-on experience than just being in class," junior Eric Brown said. "Years from now, when I drive by, I can say, 'I helped build that.'"
Houses built by students take longer to construct than they would with a traditional contractor, but Griffin said the owners appreciate the reduced costs and the fact that their home is serving to help educate Gloucester's teenagers. The teens do almost everything in the construction process aside from plaster, plumbing and insulation.
"We came in not knowing anything, and now we are wiring a house," said senior Joey Falzarano, a student in the electrical program. "We have pride in what we do."
For the automotive program, tackling "live" projects is an obvious part of the curriculum.
The main shop has service bays to work on 10 cars at a time and teacher Dennis Martin's students diagnose and provide basic auto repair, not including transmission and internal engine work, for a number of the city's senior citizens without any labor charges.
Looking to take advantage of another real-world opportunity, the automotive program is entering three modified, stripped down cars in a series of dirt track "figure-eight" races at the Topsfield Fair on Monday.
Martin will be driving the cars, a Chevrolet Cavalier, Pontiac Sunbird, and Ford Escort.
"The point of this is not to win, but to get the cars out there so people know that Gloucester High kids can do this," Martin said. "The lesson was that they had to take everything out of the cars — without breaking anything."
In the machine shop, teacher Anthony Verga, a son of the outgoing state representative, has been working to resurrect a program that was struggling when he took over three years ago, with dwindling enrollment and no students participating in "co-op" training with local business.
With technology in the manufacturing industry becoming increasingly complex and computerized, Verga is making do with equipment that has not been contemporary since World War II.
Verga said yesterday he would love to find grant money to buy computers for his shop, or to enter collaborative relationships with large employers such as Varian Semiconductors or Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering to provide equipment or training opportunities.
But even if they don't get new equipment, Verga said the lessons learned in a good shop are valuable for any student's future.
"Even if it is done using a computer, you need to know how to do it manually," Verga said. "Some kids are hands-on learners. We give them a good foundation, teach them how to solve problems and to have a good work ethic."
Patrick Anderson an be reached at panderson@gloucestertimes.com
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