Hands-on shop experience offered to kids
By: Joseph Harvie
Most South Brunswick High School classrooms have a blackboard, some desks and a television set, and most of them are in the high school building.
But one of the classrooms is in Crossroads North Middle School on Georges Road, and in it are a few desks, a parts room, two lift jacks, a 1964 Plymouth Valiant and a ton of tools.
It’s where the auto shop class meets.
The high school offers three classes in auto repair, and independent study for those who make it through the three-tier program.
On Friday, the auto II class was working in three groups, one was performing an oil change on a Mazda, while the other did textbook work and other identified the parts of a front suspension. At the same time two independent study students were putting together a motorcycle, which was completely stripped.
Throughout the year the students are going to help rebuild a ’64 Valiant from top to bottom, shop teacher Michael Andrusiewicz said. He said that the process of rebuilding an older car will help get the students ready to further their studies at a trade school, where they would learn to work on modern vehicles.
"We want to prepare the students to enter post-secondary education," Mr. Andrusiewicz said.
The class, open to all students, does not certify the students for immediate work in the automotive repair field, but prepares them for future studies, Mr. Andrusiewicz said.
In auto I, students learn the basics of car care, Mr. Andrusiewicz said. In auto II and III students learn how to work together to rebuild and repair older cars. And although the car they’re working on is an older model, Mr. Andrusiewicz said that it will help the students learn the basics.
"Nowadays you run a diagnostic check on a car and a computer picks up any codes for things that need to be replaced," Mr. Andrusiewicz said. "Well, since we’re preparing the students for post-secondary education, we want to get them to really know where everything is on a car, and how to put a motor in, and how to put a front in."
In addition, using older cars helps get local car clubs involved in the class.
"The Delaware Valley Plymouth Club found out we were working on Plymouths and they gave a donation to help us work on the car," Mr. Andrusiewicz said.
Mr. Andrusiewicz went from section to section of the garage-like classroom, helping the students with the bookwork, parts identification and the oil change. He was very cautious of the eight students doing work on the car, making sure they were working safely.
"Safety is the most important thing," Mr. Andrusiewicz said. "We don’t want the kids so overconfident that they become careless. We constantly stress safety."
Mr. Andrusiewicz is also in the middle of changing the auto shop curriculum. He hopes the changes will get more students interested in the classes and also better prepare students for their first car purchase, by making them aware of how cars work.
The first-level class is going to be a consumer car-care class and also will focus on caring for and maintaining a vehicle.
"We want to make the students knowledgeable consumers," Mr. Andrusiewicz said. "They are going to be consumers one day, and they should know what goes into owning a car, and how it works."
The other two classes will be more hands-on and similar to the existing auto I and II, Mr. Andrusiewicz said.
Mr. Andrusiewicz also said he wants to work with other technology classes in the high school.
"I would like to team my students up with the engineering and other students in other applied arts classes," Mr. Andrusiewicz said. "It’d be nice to see them work on a robotics event."
He said the current program is more than just learning about cars, it’s also about math and science.
"Some of the students who have problems with math and science, see how it’s applied in here, and take that back to the classroom with them, and they end up getting better grades," Mr. Andrusiewicz said.
The students also are preparing for their auto show, which will be held at the high school parking lot from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday.
"The kids are real excited about it," Mr. Andrusiewicz said. "This will give them a shot to show their cars off and to see each others’ cars. Some of the parents have even gotten into it and have signed up for the show."
The students paid $5 to have their car featured in the show, and the money raised goes to a scholarship to help pay for an auto shop student’s secondary education, Mr. Andrusiewicz said. Spectators are asked to pay $1 to vote for cars in three categories: best domestic, best import and best sound system.
The students also said that they enjoy the class, working on and learning about cars.
"What we learn here, you can use outside of class," said senior Kenny Yee, 17. "When you need to work on your car, you know what to do."
"It’s a hands-on experience," junior Adam Elghriany, 16, said.
Senior Salvatore D’Aniello, 17, said that learning how to take care of a car puts him ahead of the curve in car-consumer America.
"Mr. A says, that if you pass auto I, you know more than 80 percent of the population does about cars," he said.

