High School auto teacher Tom Agan opened his Monday morning
lesson in a largely-confined classroom space before splitting time
in the more spacious shop area. It is a normal routine as students
get a chalkboard talk or view a video before getting their hands
dirty on cars.
High School auto teacher Tom Agan opened his Monday morning lesson in a largely-confined classroom space before splitting time in the more spacious shop area. It is a normal routine as students get a chalkboard talk or view a video before getting their hands dirty on cars.
And it has become an increasingly cramped and uncomfortable experience in the classroom area that now crams 37 students in the basic-level class into a space that is 16-by-27 feet, where just a foot or two separates rows of students, and where Agan himself has no room to walk the aisles.
It has been a challenge for most of the 25 years in which Agan has taught the program – and the reason San Benito High School officials moved ahead on building a new classroom for auto shop that is about three times the size of the current area. School officials had hoped to open the new shop by the first day of school, but it has been held up a bit as the district, builder and architect put final touches on paperwork and construction. The cost of the new building was not available by press time.
The new classroom, just like the current version, is accessible through a door in the shop area. Builders on Monday were just outside the new classroom doing some work, but nobody was inside of it.
“I’ve been putting up with this classroom for a long time,” said Agan, who, despite the upgrade, expressed being “very frustrated” by the process. He is not sure precisely when the program can start using the new classroom, which features the larger area, a much higher ceiling, more modern furniture and even an extra work bay attached to the class so that Agan can do some shop instruction without heading into the larger lab area.
See the full story in the Free Lance on Tuesday.
