This week, Automotive Basics classes were forced to remove 25 to 30 students because they were unable to hire another teacher to help accommodate large class sizes.

The reduction was partly due to a long summer of trying and failing to obtain a qualified teacher to officially teach automotive skills to beginner and upper level classes.

“The budget situation in the state of Texas is our biggest hurdle right now,” automotive teacher Ryan Arnold said. “The school’s — every school’s — budget is super tight, and they’re trying to cut every place that they can.”

The situation compounded when administration began teaching basic auto safety rules earlier in the year, meaning also that students had less time to finish these required safety assignments.

“There is a combination of kids who have not completed safety or they were in a class that was literally being eliminated,” Arnold said. “Exactly how many kids got kicked out for not having a third teacher or kicked for not completing safety modules is a little gray.”

No matter the reason, the loss of students was unexpected but necessary in order to ensure that classes could continue to run smoothly and safely with only two teachers to look over students. 

“Everything in the shop is super dangerous,” Arnold said. “Safety will be detrimental to this program moving forward, and I want kids to leave here with all ten fingers and ten toes, so while it’s super unfortunate, we can only have a set number of seats per class.”

The extensive removal of students from the introductory auto class means that less students will advance to higher classes, a decision that will be felt for years to come.

“This is an opportunity for a lot of students that they wouldn’t get in other classes,” Arnold said. “Not having kids in the program, especially taking out first year students, severely limits class sizes in the future.”

Now however, the priority is to ensure that both teachers and students can continue to thrive in the class as well as to prepare for the possibility of hiring another staff member this year.

“We are actively looking [for a teacher] and Mr. Edwards and I still have the belief that another will be hired,” Arnold said. “We’ve hired a few people for the position and they’ve fallen through, so I don’t want to say it’s definitely going to happen, but it’s something I hope does.”

Despite the complications with their classes, students able to stay in the program feel they will be able to move forward and make the most of their situation.

“I really like the people in the class, the teachers are nice, and I’m excited to be able to work on cars,” freshman William Lindo said. “Going into the shop, going into the cars, and just looking at the engines I think will be fun.”

Also, the benefits of smaller class sizes means that students will be able to have a more personal experience with the work they do and more one-on-one communication with teachers.

“It’s always fun to be out in the shop and do hands-on things,” senior Tigerlily Broomfield said. “I want to be an airplane mechanic, so I feel like learning basic automotive skills is good.”

Most importantly, the school has been working tirelessly so remaining students can have the best possible experience in their classes and the success of the program can continue .

“Best-case scenario, we hire someone who’s a good fit for us and who has the credentials to offer dual credit next year,” Arnold said. “We’re incredibly fortunate here at McNeil; we have a super supportive administrative team and a prime setup to be one of the bigger automotive programs in the area.”