Automotive lift added to high school vocational program

By St. Clair Murraine
Outlook Staff Writer

 Darryl Johnson, an instructor in Lincoln High School’s mechanical shop program, has very vivid memories of his days as a vocational student.

Repairing an engine was mostly about knowing how to use wrenches, screwdrivers and a ratchet set. These days he is teaching a lot more than that.

He has to because cars are a lot more technical.

“It’s a lot different nowadays,” Johnson said. “It’s a lot of computers (and) you have to be computer-savvy on these things. Electrical is the big thing.”

Johnson was among the education and auto industry personnel at Lincoln High School to launch a new era in the auto mechanic program at the school. Leon County Schools superintendent Rocky Hanna led a ribbon cutting ceremony for an engine lift that was added to the program.

The lift was financed by a portion of $350,000 given to the school district by Florida Department of Education, according to Greg Hoover, an automotive instructor at Lively Technical College. In all, DOE has given $26.5 million to school districts across the state to enhance their industrial arts programs.

In addition to the lift, Lincoln also has an indoor classroom for its automotive program. The addition at Lincoln is the latest on a growing list of similar programs in other area high schools.

Rickards and Godby each have nursing and welding programs, Leon has a building program, while nursing courses are also offered at Lawton Chiles High School. 

Participation is high, said Hanna, because of a need for skilled workers in careers that don’t require a college degree.

“Let’s be clear,” Hanna said, “there is demand for skilled labor workforce; whether it’s in automotive, building trade and the list goes on and on.”

Legislative changes had force abandonment of vocational arts programs, but Hanna said industry trends create a need for schools to prepare students who might want to enter the workforce out of high school.

“This is a non-partisan issue,” he said. “It’s one thing that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on. We have to get careers and technical training opportunities back in our schools to give kids who otherwise would not go on to college a chance to have a successful future.

“We know that one size does not fit all. Every student is not asking to go to Florida State, FAMU, University of Florida, (or) Harvard. There are many opportunities that do not require that traditional track.”

Kade Dazevedo, a Lincoln senior, is already seeing a path to a career in automotive repair. He currently holds down an after-school job at Proctor Honda in conjunction with Lively Tech.

 Having a lift at Lincoln will help him keep pace with what he learns at Honda.

“It’s a big opportunity for us,” he said. “We finally can get the lift. We’ve got a lot of hands-on stuff we can do now that opens a lot of opportunities instead of looking at a computer.

“Automobiles are a lot more advanced than they’ve been in the past. It’s a changing industry; a lot of advancements are happening and everything is just becoming more and more complexed so this program is helping a lot. It’s not just nuts and bolts anymore. It’s more diagnosing faults on computers.”