Asbury Park schools will work with unions to teach good-paying building trades

ASBURY PARK - A decade ago, Trischele Petach's career as a physical education teacher fell victim to budget cuts. But she found a new future as an electrician after Superstorm Sandy tore through the region.

"We were doing home rebuilds all throughout Middletown that were flooded. My cousin in the (union) local (asked me), 'What are you doing? You have no future, no benefits, no package. Why don't you come down to the hall with me?'" Petach said.

Petach, 40, is now a journeyman electrician, as well as a Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee instructor at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 400 in Wall. And she's hoping to spread her knowledge to students at Asbury Park High School, because she knows how valuable it can be.

"Something that you learn can never be taken away from you. How do we market that to the kids?" Petach said.

The Asbury Park School District is working with the city, local unions and the Asbury Park Housing Authority to implement a trades curriculum for high school students.

Any city projects that cost $5 million or more will use union labor and/or hire mostly local residents at a union rate after the city council approved a pre-labor agreement in late October.

With the agreement, the bid specifications for eligible construction projects will require the general contractor to employ Asbury Park residents on the project. When eligible, it will require that each contractor performing work on the project will train and mentor city residents, and recruit local Asbury Park residents into the apprenticeship programs, according to the resolution.

Councilwoman Angela Ahbez-Anderson told the Asbury Park Press she planned to strategize with RaShawn Adams, superintendent of the school district, to implement a building trades curriculum into the high school.

The curriculum would include a Career and Technical Education (CTE) program consisting of building and mechanical trades with a strong math and science components, as well as a financial literacy component, and computer-aided designed (CAD). However, the district has not worked out the scope and sequence of the classes, according to district officials.

'Wisest move possible'

The councilwoman's husband, Calvin Anderson, a retired union member of IBEW Local 1820, said a partnership between the school district and the trade unions would be "the wisest move possible."

"You have to realize there are no industrial places here in Asbury for these kids to go work. So when they get out of high school, what do they have? An endless cycle (of) restaurants and small mom-and-pop stores," Anderson said. "This is going to give them the opportunity to look outside of Asbury and go get a really great job."

In Monmouth County, a journeyman mechanic can earn a wage upwards of $72.86 per hour at prevailing rate, while a journeyman boilermaker could earn a wage upward of $92.42 per hour at prevailing rate. A journey bricklayer/ stone mason can earn a wage upwards of $84.28 per hour at prevailing rate.

Petach of the IBEW, who now teaches electricity to juniors and seniors for Monmouth County Vocational School District, said learning a trade can "open a kid's eyes up to what is out there." Even if a student decides that the career isn't for them, the education remains useful.

"They can apply what they know to save themselves $500 in the future by putting up a ceiling fan or apply it to going to school for an engineering degree, or maybe become an architect or general contractor," Petach said.

Adams of the school district said the district needs to figure out "how do you inspire a kid that really has no interest in going to college?"

"When it came time for graduation, besides the kids in our Dream Academy program going off to college and those students who chose the path of the military … we didn't really know where (the rest) were going to go, what they were going to do," Adams said.

That is when the conversation of creating other pathways to careers began.

'They're buying in 110%'

The Monmouth County vocational careers program only takes a certain number of students from the entire county. So the district implementing its own curriculum allows it to offer that same opportunity to more Asbury Park students.

"Once I launched the cosmetology program, that was the next thing I really wanted to do was look at the buildings, mechanical trade aspect," Adams said.

Keeping students engaged improves attendance.

"Because they have to come to these classes, they're interested in what they're doing. They're buying in 110% because they see the light on the other end of the tunnel," Adams said.

The district plans to work with unions in various trades to set up the program. For example, the district is working with professionals from the IBEW to retrofit the curriculum for what they offer for their apprentice program for electricians.

"The classes that we are going through, training here are advanced classes," he said. "We are taking apprentices that have zero experience in the electrical industry, and through those five years of training, giving them the hands-on classroom instruction to become the best trained electricians in the industry," said Todd Larsen, the training director for the Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee at IBEW 400.

He added that learning a trade and being in the union "is the most beneficial thing possible" for a career.

"If you want to be successful in any trade, the union is the way to go. Between our state-of-the-art facilities, our state-of-the-art training, everything is current and up to date," Larsen said. "The experience of our instructors, our journeymen and journeywomen are the ones helping with on-the-job training, it is bar-none."

He added by the time someone finishes the apprenticeship program "they almost have enough college credits to get their associate's degree."

"And they also get the option to take on additional classes throughout this apprenticeship program (at IBEW) and finish this program with a bachelor's degree," Larsen said.

Qaasim Johnson, the director of housing, said the Asbury Park Housing Authority is "definitely on board" with implementing the trade curriculum and "having the opportunity for a lot of our residents to participate in the trades through the high school would be a good thing."

"One (idea) was that, while they are in the high school program, (they could be) doing an apprenticeship with some of our master tradesmen within our maintenance department, whether it be plumbing or electrician," Johnson said. "The housing authority would be able to help with employment during that apprenticeship process, with those that live in the housing authority or within the City of Asbury Park as a whole."

Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. @CharlesDayeAPP Contact him: CDaye@gannettnj.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Asbury Park schools, unions cooperate to teach building trade jobs