YOUNGSTOWN Course for adults is on its last leg

The district postponed the program to search for a substitute teacher.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Frank Losiewicz needs less than two months of training to become certified in adult precision machining.
It's a new direction for Losiewicz, of Poland, who began the training after being laid off from Cold Metal Products.
But, after several months of education through the Youngstown School District's Adult Precision Machine Trades course, he fears the program is in danger.
Adult students were to start fall classes last Thursday. But Losiewicz received a call, telling him the start date had been postponed until next Monday.
"I have about a month and a half left and that's it," he said. "I got pushed out of my job, and now I went to this program and I'm getting kicked out of the school."
Losiewicz said he's been told that hours also are being changed -- to evenings -- a move that will push out some students who attend class during the day and work afternoon shifts.
In August, district officials said the adult program would be consolidated with a high school program. The move came after the board of education voted in April to suspend the contract of adult-course teacher George C. Kovach Sr., because of enrollment drops.
The district no longer intends to consolidate the program with a high school class, said Denise Vaclav-Danko, the district's supervisor of Adult Basic & amp; Literacy Education and Career-Technical & amp; Adult Education. Instead, the five remaining students will continue with a substitute teacher.
She said the program was postponed to allow the district time to hire a substitute.
Adult programs must be self-sufficient or face cancellation, Vaclav-Danko said. Enrollment "has always been an issue," she said, and the program has lost money for the past three years.
What teacher said
Kovach was offered the chance to serve as the substitute, Vaclav-Danko said, but he declined.
"They wanted me to come back and phase the program out," Kovach said. "I have two kids in college. I couldn't do it." Besides taking a pay cut with the switch to a substitute's salary, Kovach said he also was asked to give up vacation (including school breaks) and sick pay.
The 180-day course uses high-tech equipment to teach students to operate and program Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines.
Kovach, who has associate and bachelor's degrees and journeyman's papers, worked for 25 years in the industry before becoming a teacher 14 years ago. (A previous Vindicator article incorrectly reported that he had worked only 13 years in industry.)
He said the program has found jobs for 94 percent of its students, who earn an average of $14 per hour to start.
Kovach maintains that he had nine new students interested in enrolling, but the district still shut down the program.
"What they did was totally wrong," he said. "I had enough students to start another program."
viviano@vindy.com