Welding program idle, lacks teacher
High-demand jobs are out there, but vacancy stymies class in Richmond
The welding program at John F. Kennedy High School in Richmond has been unable to offer any classes this year because the teaching job is vacant.
You read that right. There’s a school in the home city of Rosie the Riveter national historic park that can’t find someone to teach students how to join metal with heat.
And right now, welding is one of the hottest jobs in the country. One representative for a local iron workers union told me there’s a shortage of welders in the Bay Area and nationwide.
Kennedy High School has the tools to set up students for long careers. The metal shop, which underwent equipment and facility upgrades last year, is ready to be used by students interested in a career that has job security and doesn’t require a college degree.
The school district has advertised the position since June, but hasn’t been able to fill it.
The problem might be money. The starting salary for teachers in the West Contra Costa Unified School District is $54,000, according to human resources. Welders can make more than that on the job.
“Obviously, they could make more money welding than being a teacher,” said Kenneth Whittemore, an assistant superintendent and head of human resources for the school district. “We’re looking for that right person that can come in and do it.”
Before Thanksgiving, Mike Peritz, a retired teacher who taught for 35 years at the school, wrote an impassioned email pleading with community members to help find a teacher. He wrote the email because he felt the school district wasn’t working hard enough to find a welding teacher. Whittemore said the district was blessed to have advocates like Peritz.
“Students who elected welding for school’s opening in August had to be given other classes,” Peritz wrote in the email. “Soon their
schedules must be ready for second semester. Are we going to tell them that the career pathway they have chosen is no longer available?”
The email was shared hundreds of times on social media sites such as Facebook, and it’s apparently because of the email Peritz wrote that there are several people now interested in the job. On Thursday, Peritz, who began working at the school when it opened in 1967, gave a tour of the metal lab to people curious about the job. He invited me to tag along.
Peritz, a former English teacher, ran the school’s restaurant and catering program for several years. That program, like other vocational offerings at the school, has been discontinued. He doesn’t want welding to be next.
As we walked through a courtyard with stone lunch tables and benches, Peritz talked about Cleve Harris, the welding program’s former teacher. Harris, a welder who retired from Chevron, taught students for more than a decade until he died from cancer.
“He wasn’t a professional teacher, but he was the best welder around and he had the biggest heart,” Peritz said of Harris. “And he took on huge challenges to work with kids in his welding program.”
Just about everything is brand new in the metal shop. New lighting and ventilation ducts were installed, along with fume hoods. There are four new welding computer simulators for students to practice on before stepping into the lab. In the lab, there are new welding grinders and drill presses. There are unopened boxes of steel-toe boots donated by Sims Metal Management in a storage closest.
The shop renovation, which cost $500,000, was funded through a partnership with Chevron and the school district, according to Andrew Brooks, an assistant principal. Brooks said there were three sections of students scheduled for the class in August, about 75 students total. Many of the students are girls.
“Here we have this incredible potential waiting,” he said.
When I called Mitchell Kettle, the apprenticeship coordinator for the Oakland chapter of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental, and Reinforcing Iron Workers, to get his thoughts on the school’s search, he told me he saw Peritz’s email. After apprenticing, Kettle said, welders can ask for higher salaries. For example, he said welders with a seismic welding certification can earn between $90,000 and $110,000 a year.
“Right now, it’s so hard to get somebody to teach a welding class because everybody is so busy making money they don’t want to give it up,” he said.
Welders are in demand at the Port of Richmond and Chevron’s refinery. Kennedy students could eventually fill the open positions — if they had a teacher to mold their sparked interest in welding.
Mark Metz, who teaches welding and furniture building at The Crucible, the Oakland industrial arts school, was one of the prospective teachers who took a tour of the metal shop. He first saw Peritz’s email shared on Nextdoor, the social media app. Metz was impressed with what he saw in the metal lab.
“This is state-of-the-art for a high school student,” Metz said. “For a high school lab, this is nice.”
It’d be nicer if students were actually using the lab.
“It’s so hard to get somebody to teach a welding class because everybody is so busy making money they don’t want to give it up.”
Mitchell Kettle, apprenticeship coordinator
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. appears Mondays and Thursdays. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjr