HANOVER — Changes are coming to the autobody program at South Shore Regional Vocational Technical High School — just as the industry and student interest in the field have changed over recent years.

The school’s Collision Repair Technology program is being phased out and combined with the Automotive program after the 2019-20 school year. Members of the SSVT School Committee voted to make the change at the Wednesday, April 18 meeting.

It does not mean that future students will lack opportunities to study collision repair at the school if that is the focus of their automotive interest, according to Superintendent/Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey.

“It’s my recommendation that we need to look differently at our Collision Repair Technology program,” Hickey said. “Given the fact that we’ve had some low enrollment, I’m looking for a different direction that would allow us to preserve some collision repair instruction as part of our Automotive program.”

School Committee Chairman Robert Molla Jr., of Norwell said he has discussed the issue with Hickey and program instructors.

“The only thing that will adjust our thinking is if the incoming class this coming year is overwhelmed with students for autobody,” Molla said.

Hickey has instructed the guidance department to discuss with students expressing an interest in collision on applications — and their parents — about how the program change will work. During exploratory weeks, a portion of the automotive shop time will focus on collision repair.

 “While there is a market for these jobs, it is not a market that seems to be sustainable with our high school audience,” he said noting one instructor is planning to retire at the end of the next school year and the other can be absorbed into automotive. Both departments have already begun to work on an integrated curriculum.

“When I went to vocational school, I had automotive and body shop was part of that,” Molla said. “With the new automobiles using aluminum, we’d have to put in an aluminum-type workshop in there. Aluminum doesn’t have the memory that metal does — metal, if you crash it, you can bring metal back but [with] aluminum, if it’s crashed it’s crashed.”

“It actually makes a lot of sense,” said Committee member Robert Heywood of Hanover.

The shop footprint and equipment will be preserved to provide space to help alleviate a chronic problem with a lack of adequate room in the Automotive program, according to Hickey.

“If we have [future] students that have an interest in collision repair, there’s a place for them to get a portion of that,” Hickey said.

The change also creates an opportunity to expand night school programs for young adults seeking collision repair credentials.

“If the local labor market requires this set of skills for entry-level … we should not be pigeon-holed saying that an automotive student should never, ever, ever be interested [in collision repair],” Hickey said. “If all of our local employers are talking about the difficulty of getting trained hires, why can’t we be a regional training center out of our adult-ed program?”

A closure plan, providing a rationale, must be presented to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), which Hickey has done. DESE has approved the plan.

“It’s [now] a matter for this committee to ultimately take up,” he said. The committee unanimously supported the proposal.

SERVICE PROJECT

In other business, the committee heard a glowing report regarding the school’s first-ever out-of-state community service learning project. Trip coordinator and Science Department Chairman Matthew Fallano and English Department Chairman John Scopeletti, who served as a chaperone, spoke about the trip.

“They have just — just — returned,” Hickey said. “When I say just I mean they woke up this morning on in New Jersey. … I want to thank them personally for joining two other staff members and a group of students in what was our inaugural service learning trip.”

Fallano said the students impressed worksite leaders with their knowledge and OSHA construction certifications. He noted that SSVT students were able to problem solve and fix electrical issues and Allied Health students who joined the trip became “the greatest spacklers on the planet.”

“It was worth all the time and effort put into it,” he said. “It was extremely rewarding for them, it was extremely rewarding for us. … There was not one person that was not complementary of our students for their professionalism.”

Fallano added that homeowners also appreciated the students’ work. He thanked the South Shore area union and parents who donated to the cost of the trip and area residents who attended a fund-raising meat raffle.

Rockland Computer Information Technology senior Evan Dogu was honored as the Student of the Month. Dogu, who plans to enter the Air Force after graduation, is employed at a Pembroke data storage firm and is an honor student who has played center/linebacker for the football team, of which he was a captain, as well as lacrosse and is president of the school chapter of Business Professionals of America. He scored highest in the state on the BPA exam for computer technology and theory as well as notching a high score on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) of tests. He will represent SSVT at the BPA national competition in Texas later this year.

HANOVER — “So, life is going to punch us in the face.”

As they walked to their first booth at South Shore Vo-Tech’s ninth annual Credit For Life Fair Thursday, April 12, one student summed up to her friend the day’s lesson with her own take on the program’s motto — “If you don’t have a plan for your money, someone else will.”

The object is to help students avoid getting a financial “punch in the face” from life.

Credit For Life is intended to be a practice session for the realities of budgeting before being faced with the need to do so when it counts. It’s a chance to get financial do-overs, and sometimes they are needed.

Rockland Trust Hanson Branch Manager Karen Sharon, a Whitman resident, said there are two common mistakes most students make during the event — they don’t realize they may not be able to afford a new car right away and that budgeting $25 per month for spending money won’t get them very far. Rockland Trust is the program sponsor at SSVT.

“We’ve been telling them for four years what’s involved in the real world. The Credit For Life Fair, with two months left before they graduate, gives them that one concise, complete simulation — that there are a lot of difficult, challenging and exciting decisions they’re going to have to make,” Superintendent/Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey said the timing of the program is part of its impact.

“This is when the senior countdown begins,” he told the seniors during a breakfast gathering in the school cafeteria. “Clearly, we’re sending you a message that you must always have money in your budget for Dunkin’ Donuts and coffee.”

In a more serious vein, he told the largest senior class in school history that they harbor more potential wealth, based on learned skills, than any other group of high school seniors on the South Shore.

“Generating wealth is only half of it,” he said. “[Planning] what you’re going to do with this money, and in what disciplined manner you are going to use this wealth, is essential.”

He urged students to applaud event planner and Math teacher Mary Farmer and the business and Parents Association volunteers staffing booths to help them calculate the funds needed for food, housing, transportation, insurance, credit lending, education and even luxuries and unexpected windfalls or liabilities.

Students’ budgets had to balance and be reviewed by teachers or Rockland Trust offcials at the event’s credit counseling center.

Student Council President Rosa Gachia of Whitman, an Allied Health student said she hopes to become a surgeon and was interested in the cost of the higher education she will need. She has been accepted at three colleges and universities.

“I’m hoping it will help me learn how to manage my money better,” she said, noting her Credit For Life job assignment and income was as a licensed practical nurse (LPN). “I’m hoping this will at least give me an idea of the path I need to take moneywise, because I know I’m going to be in debt a lot because of the schooling and the amount of years and not enough money for it.”

Students were assigned a job title, gross and net annual income figures and charged with making financial decisions with an eye toward maintaining a balanced budget at the end of the event.

Hanson Automotive student Calvin King was looking for some pointers in balancing his credit and savings.

“Trying to get the car was kind of a pain,” he said, but he was one of the prudent ones who opted for a used vehicle for his first purchase. He found “all the math you have to do” to be an eye-opener.

“It’s a lot,” King said.

“The fact that everybody needs a house at some point” was a sobering reality for Hanson Computer Information Technology student Michael Andrasy, who was going it alone on that decision during the event. “I haven’t really calculated it yet, but [the budget’s] going pretty good,” he said. “I’m just out to learn about what I’ll need in the real world.”

Cheyenne Chaplin of Whitman, a Collision Repair Technology student, learned at the Reality Check wheel that even good surprises have a downside.

“I got Patriots tickets, but have to pay for parking and tax,” she said. “I’d like to see how [the event] relates to real life.”

And real life for these students, some of whom are directly entering the workforce, is two months away.

“The timing is perfect,” Hickey said. “We have more students out on co-op[erative learning] than ever before. We have more students working part-time jobs or otherwise in the workforce.”