Grants Pass High School is expanding its automotive program, now in its third year, to give students more space for hands-on training.
Around 150 students learn the basics of car repair while working on staff and student vehicles.
Students gathered to celebrate an outdoor expansion of the auto program, including two new lifts.
Automotive teacher Travis Rappleyea said it's been difficult to manage working out of the small garage.
“If a job goes sideways on us, as they very frequently tend to do, then we're down that space until we can get that vehicle out of here," he said. "And that's going to butt heads and interfere with all the other classes that we have going on.”
Rappleyea said having twice as much space means that students will have room to take on more complex jobs.
“When we finally got this outdoor expansion, we can actually work on our cars now as a whole group instead of just half and half," said senior John Higgins. "And it adds two lifts, so people that need lifts have them.”
The expansion was completed over the winter break. Rappleyea said around half of the students are interested in pursuing auto repair as a career. There’s a mechanic shortage in the Rogue Valley and nationwide, so more mechanics are needed.
"There's an average of — just in our Southern Oregon general area — 400 job postings a year for automotive technicians, or something very closely related," said Rappleyea. "They typically stay posted anywhere from 40 to 90 days, so there's a lot of opportunity."
Rappleyea said he's working with Rogue Community College to allow students to earn dual credits by completing RCC's basic automotive maintenance class in high school.
The district funded the $750,000 expansion through a debt restructuring plan that it said cost taxpayers nothing.
