Students of the Month

Welcome back, M/T crew! Tonight is the monthly Joint Operating Committee meeting, and this means that two students from our academy (and students from the other academies as well) will be honored as our students of the month. Our two students for this month are as follows:

Corey Rexroth - 10th grade - Welding - Red Lion

Timothy Simpson - 10th Grade - Automotive - Eastern


Congrats to these two students, and I am looking forward to presenting these awards at the board meeting this evening, 7:30 pm.

New Faces

For the next couple months, we have two new faces working in the Automotive Program. Mr. Merges is out for surgery, and Mr. Fadely is substituting for him for the morning group. Mr. Fadely has many years of automotive industry experience and currently teaches part-time at the Advanced Skills Center. Mr. Gipson, currently an employee of Diehl Toyota (and a YCST grad from '93), is substituting in the afternoon group for Mr. Merges.

We all wish Mr. Merges a quick recovery and return, but we are so pleased (and thankful) to have two very capable technicians and teachers here to work with our students in his absence.

Open House

Last night was our annual Open House for prospective students and their families to come visit the school to see the amazing programs, technical AND academic, that we offer. It also seems to be an unspoken alumni event as well.... it was great to see some of our alumni to hear about what they are doing now.

The Open House night is an opportunity for the technical teachers and their students to show off what they do in their technical area. Although as the principal, I needed to be posted out in the hallway to answer questions, I DID sneak back into the shops to see what was happening and was able to take a couple pictures in our Automotive and Welding shops.

Thanks to Mrs. Parks for organizing the event, the technical teachers for putting on a great show in the shops, and to all other teachers, staff, and students who helped to make the event successful.

Open House Week!!

Tomorrow night is our annual Open House from 6:30 - 8:30 pm. This event is primarily for the community, prospective students, and their families to come see what students do in each program. This year is going to be amazing.... all of our technical areas are going to be giving demonstrations of the different tasks completed in the the programs. Here is an example below from of the demonstrations that will take place in the Automotive program (thanks Mr. Kessler for providing this list):

1. Engine Rebuilding
2. General Maintenance
3. Computer Diagnostics
4. Wheel Alignment
5. Tire Changing
6. Tire Balancing
7. Brake Lathe Operations
8. Starter and Alternator Testing
9. Electronic Service Procedures

Powder Puff Football

Although I was unable to attend this event, I hear it was fantastic! Four all-female teams, with each team representing a class (frosh, sophomores, juniors, and seniors) played flag football against one another, and the freshmen class won! They were coached by the fantastic Mr. Graham among a few other faculty members.

There was also a male cheerleading squad there to make the game more entertaining. I know that Auto student, Ben Henry, was among the male students who participated on the squad.

Thanks to the many faculty members who coached, played on the faculty team, and/or volunteered/coordinated the event! I know it was a fun time for all who participated.

Diesel Shop

Pictured above are some highlights from Diesel Shop this week:

1) The top picture shows two new students testing the lights on one of the tractors.

2) The second picture demonstrates a few upper classmen brainstorming about how to remove the fan so that they would be able to remove the engine to perform some work on it.

3) On Wed, the PM students had a visit from Mr. Yoder from Central Penn Diesel Institute.

What a great week it's been in the diesel shop so far!

The Busy Bees in Automotive Shop

Now that the rotators are in the shops full time, each shop is a flurry of activity. I visited Auto shop earlier this week to see new students busy with learning some of the basic competencies and the upper classmen working on specific jobs and assisting the new students. It's great to see it all come together!

Power Equipment Shop

Now that our rotation students have been placed into their shps of choice, I've been getting into each technical area to understand their most recent projects. As you can see above, a new student and a more experienced student are working on getting this motorcycle running. Good work, students as good luck

Night Football at Tech

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Last night was York Tech's first ever night football game. Even though the score
could have been better, the afternoon and evening was a wonderful school/community event. From the tailgate party to one of our Man Tran teachers, Ms. Falvey in the top picture, singing the national anthem, to the players getting ready to play (2nd picture down) and to the fantastic crowd (3rd picture), we had a wonderful evening. A special thanks to Kinsely Construction for donating the lights and to Mr. Caruso and Mr. Zortman for organizing the events.

Academic Thoughts

This week, we are wrapping up the PSSA re-tests for 12th grade students whose scores were below proficient on the Reading, Writing, Math and/or Science portion of the PSSA tests last spring. I hope that our students (some of whom were Man/Tran students) took the re-tests seriously.

Along those lines, I was reading some information this morning, and I came across this website: http://www.hippocampus.com. This is a website designed to offer FREE homework help to students in certain Math, Science and Social Studies courses. If we can help students learn to help themselves more academically, maybe they wouldn't be in a position senior year when they have to re-take the PSSAs.