Afternoon classes will include only Hopewell Valley students
By John Tredrea
This fall, Hopewell Valley Central High School’s auto shop program will continue offering the same courses it has for years. The courses will be offered in conjunction with the Mercer County vocational school, the Arthur Sypek school.
The school district began negotiating with the vocational school after Central High School auto shop teacher Richard Estelow announced his retirement several months ago. Mr. Estelow taught auto shop at the high school for 41 years.
After Mr. Estelow announced his retirement, officials of the Hopewell Valley district said they were considering downsizing or eliminating the auto shop program. This led to a sustained burst of protest from many parents and residents. That outcry led the district to negotiate with the county, which will provide the auto shop teacher to replace Mr. Estelow.
Hopewell Valley will pay the county $31,460 under this arrangement, school spokeswoman JoAnn Meyer said. The $31,460 the school district will pay covers 50 percent of the salary and benefits for the auto shop teacher. The county will pay the other 50 percent.
The arrangement was approved unanimously by the school board June 25. Under the deal with the county, morning auto shop classes will include students from other school districts in Mercer County as well as Hopewell Valley students. The students from the other districts will be enrolled in the county vocational school.
The afternoon auto shop classes will include only Hopewell Valley students. In the afternoon, there will be one double-period auto shop class and one-single period auto shop class. These will be the same courses the district has been offering for years while Mr. Estelow was here, Ms. Meyer said. She added that Mr. Estelow conferred recently with the county vocational school teacher who will handle the auto shop courses at Central High School beginning in September.

