Students and parents lament loss of shop class COLLEEN LUTOLF Frank Kemper, an eighth-grader at Iselin Middle School, sits with some of his completed projects he made in wood shop class this year. His brother, Nick, a sixth-grader is disappointed wood shop was eliminated from next year’s curriculum. District officials cut program to make room for language classes BY COLLEEN LUTOLF Staff Writer When the eighth-graders throughout Woodbridge graduate from middle school this year, they’ll be the last class to take home birdhouses, card tables and napkin holders they made themselves. COLLEEN LUTOLF Eighth-grader R.J. McPartland sits at the desk he built in shop class. The school district eliminated wood shop from the middle school curriculum for the 2005-06 school year. The middle school wood shop program was slashed from the 2005-06 school budget to make room for state-mandated world language classes, Assistant Superintendent Lois Rotella said. “It was removed from the budget,” she said. “It wasn’t a budget cut. It be would be nice to have time to expand courses but there is no way to accommodate [the wood shop program] with school time available. We’re sympathetic to people who want to keep wood shop in the curriculum but think of the kids first. Think about what they need to do in life to be successful.” When Iselin Middle School student R.J. McPartland heard the news from Bill Leahy, his wood shop teacher, that wood shop would no longer be offered to middle school students, he said he was at least glad he got the opportunity to take the class. “Thank goodness we had the last class,” he said. Wood shop is McPartland’s favorite class. He does good work in his academic classes, but it’s a struggle for him, his mom, Lori, said. He excels in wood shop and wants be a police officer when he graduates high school. He also hopes to open his own contracting business because he loves working with his hands, he said. As soon as the weather warmed this spring, he began building a shed for his mom in his backyard. “I like that we do the stuff and the teacher doesn’t,” R.J. said. “The teacher’s there but we do all the work.” R.J.’s friend and fellow eighth grader at Iselin Middle School, Frank Kemper, gets straight “A”s in his academic classes. Two of his favorites are math and science, but he still loves wood shop. “We learn all the processes,” he said. “How to sand it. How to build it. How to use all the tools.” Frank says he welcomes the reprieve from all the book work in school. His younger brother, Nicholas, will be a seventh-grader in September. He’ll be bringing home the extra book. Toyce Collins, president of the local teachers’ union, the Woodbridge Education Association, said the school district could offer the world language classes and keep the wood shop. “What we’re saying is within the current school day, they can offer the industrial arts program and in fact, this year they have,” Collins said. “We’re hoping the board can see the value of some industrial arts instruction at middle school level.” Eliminating industrial arts on the middle school level meant moving those teachers to the district’s three high schools. Leahy and Avenel Middle School shop teacher Edward Whitman will move to Colonia High School; Ronald Vanco of Woodbridge Middle School and Ronald Victoria from Fords Middle School will both move over to Woodbridge High School. Colonia Middle School industrial arts teacher James Martin is retiring. School business administrator Dennis DeMarino said in March that wood shop was eliminated because kids were not signing up for the program anymore. The Sentinel quoted DeMarino as saying kids “don’t want to make a lamp out of a Jack Daniels bottle anymore.” DeMarino said he was misquoted. Leahy was still angry. “I’ve been a teacher 20 years in Woodbridge and we’ve never, never had a student here make a lamp out of a Jack Daniels bottle,” he said. “Where’d he go to school? I know where he went because I taught him.” Losing wood shop will hurt the kids, Leahy said. “Shop kept me in school,” he said. “I think by losing shop class, we’re going to lose a whole group of kids.” Industrial arts is still part of the high school curriculum. The high school industrial arts program will not be affected by the elimination of the middle school program because the middle and high school programs are not sequential, personnel director Angela Korodan said in March. “That’s not necessarily true,” Leahy said. “You learn the use of hand tools and different joining techniques. The freshman in wood shop one will have to learn hand tools differently. They won’t have the general knowledge from the beginning.” “It’s really a shame,” Martin said. “It provides a great opportunity to build up self-esteem. The kids love it and it’s not exclusive. It’s a really great program for boys and girls.” Martin is retiring after 34 years teaching in the district. “Where is a child going to get this opportunity if they don’t get it at school?” Martin asked. “It was a wonderful career for me. If someone shows you something, you want to be able to continue it.” That’s why Frank and Nick’s mom, Sue Kemper is disappointed. “I have two very different children,” she said. “Nick is more hands-on. He wants to do welding. I can take him to Home Depot but my kids are lucky they have a father with a workshop. Some of their friends don’t have that opportunity. I’m not blaming the school district. I know the state is requiring this but all I see are all the kids losing an opportunity.” Nick is also disappointed. He said if he had the opportunity to talk to the people who decided to eliminate shop from middle school he would tell them two words: “You stink. “We do so much work in school, at least let us do something we like,” he said. As a result of the middle school shop teachers moving up to the high school, the board terminated two high school shop teachers at its April 28 meeting — Michael Veth, who has taught in the district for 20 years, and Timothy Bergin, a Woodbridge teacher for 15 years. Last week, the board reinstated the two shop teachers. But Woodbridge High School industrial arts teachers have been transferred. James Fitzpatrick will now be a special education teacher at Woodbridge High; Ray Ronn will move to the elementary level at Ross Street School. In lieu of wood shop, middle school students may opt for Spanish or French, Rotella said.