Saugus school board wants to keep shop program alive

SAUGUS – The Saugus School Committee voted 5-0 Thursday to instruct Superintendent Richard Langlois to meet with retired high school shop teacher Carmine Moschella to figure out a way to keep the shop program alive for another year.Moschella, who retired as shop teacher in 1993, spoke to the School Committee about the importance of the wood shop program, which will be suspended this year after former shop teacher Marc Bliss retired.?This is a subject that is really dear to my heart,” said Moschella, who first started teaching shop at the high school in 1956. “I think one of the most important things coming out of the shop would be the basic skills that you get. The basics will increase your potential for getting a job. Not only does it show your basic skills but it shows your basic attitude for the job.”Moschella also said shop class helps build students? self esteem.?Teenagers ? they?re always open to criticism ? but in the shops, because what they?re building, the minute they build something and the moment it?s completed they want everyone to know about it,” said Moschella.School Committee member Arthur Grabowski supported Moschella.?There has to be some life skills that are taught to these kids to diversify their ideas in their minds so the ones we can?t reach on an academic level we can reach on a different level,” said Grabowski, as he held up a wooden trinket the made in shop class in 1961.Moschella also offered his own plan to keep the shop open.?I am a retired man ? I have offered I would personally go down there as a substitute teacher for at least three months, maybe more if you needed it. And maybe if you got a teacher that wasn?t certified I?d work with them too,” said Moschella.Langlois assured Moschella and the committee that the program will only be suspended for a year while the curriculum is reworked to include more technology and engineering?Your voice doesn?t go on deaf ears,” said Langlois. “But we have to do the right thing for the future to keep and sustain what you?ve created. One of the strands is wood working. That shop has to become part of a more diverse program we create.”School Committee member Joe Malone said he was a afraid that if the program stops for one year, “it will die forever.”?Not everyone is going to be sitting in front of a computer all day,” said Malone. “These skills are needed in American society and are dying. We have 75 students at the high school that are going to go without a program that could benefit them greatly.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].