Hoover High’s auto program receives boost from Glendale dealerships
After a years-long hiatus, Glendale Unified reinstated an automotive program at Hoover High School this past fall.
Now, several months later, the fledgling program is beginning to receive the critical boost it needs from dealers who work blocks away on the Brand Boulevard of Cars.
On Wednesday, representatives from several of those dealerships, including Acura of Glendale, Diamond Honda, Pacific BMW, Allen Gwynn Chevrolet, and Star Auto Group, including Ford, Lincoln and Mazda, visited Hoover to scope out the garage.
Their investment in the school’s program has already been substantial, with the donation of tools, uniforms and money, including a $10,000 check earmarked for the auto program from Star Auto Group President Steve Bussjaeger that went to the Glendale Educational Foundation.
Among many K-12 school districts, what was once known as “auto shop” is a thing of the past.
Within the Glendale school district, Crescenta Valley High School’s former auto garage is now home to a robotics program. At Glendale High, the auto program gave way to a construction academy.
During the last academic year, however, Glendale school officials, who were looking to establish more career technical education learning opportunities, revived the auto program by offering students at Toll Middle School a course in small engines.
This fall, many of those students became freshmen at Hoover High School, where they enrolled in Auto 101 to learn about engines, transmissions and fluids, anything under the hood.
The district also plans to offer courses for students to focus on cars’ electrical systems, suspensions and chassis.
For those in the auto industry who are looking to groom future auto technicians, they often look to community colleges because those campuses still offer technician programs, said Jeanne Brewer, general manager of Acura of Glendale.
As Glendale Unified worked to reestablish its program, Susan Hunt, who is executive director of the Glendale Educational Foundation, began to facilitate talks with Glendale auto dealers and Hoover High.
It didn’t take long for the local auto dealers to offer their full support.
“For our industry, this is a blessing,” Brewer said of Hoover’s program. “It’s critical that we expose students to auto tech. Every car dealership is looking for new techs. We need people to apply for those positions.”
By the time students complete a handful of courses at Hoover, they can earn a general technician service certificate before graduating, enabling them to qualify for entry-level work in a garage.
They can also take the units they earned and apply them to the auto program at Rio Hondo College in Whittier.
Hoover’s auto instructor, Javier Luna, teaches at both Rio Hondo and at Toll Middle School.
“This program is going to give them skills to work right after they leave high school,” he said.
One of Luna’s students, Andrew Lorenzo, a 16-year-old junior at Hoover, is also enrolled at Rio Hondo and focused on one day working in the auto industry.
“I’ve always had an interest for it, but until I got to Hoover,” he said, “and until Mr. Luna basically opened so many doors for me … I realized this is what I really love doing. It’s thanks to Mr. Luna that I actually want to do this.”
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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
