By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

LeCroy Career Technical Center welcomed the community to tour its programs with an open house on Oct. 23.

Teachers and students from welding, health science, automotive and other classes were available to answer questions and talk about their programs.

Teacher Lee Brown has been with the automotive program for 16 years.

“We cover pretty much everything on a car, but it is still the basic stuff,” Brown said.

Students learn everything from working on brakes to transmissions.

The majority of the cars that students work on come from the community.

“People in the community call us up and say they want something done and, if it is something tied in with what we are covering, we will bring them in and work on it,” Brown said.

He said students also work on their own vehicles.

The program takes two years to complete. Students who complete the program receive a certificate and are eligible to take the Automotive Service Excellence certification test.

“I came through this program as a student,” Brown said. “It helped me find a good job and a good paycheck. Now, I’m turning around and putting back into the community for kids to be able to find a good job and learn a good skill to be able to support their family.”

Although the program does involve a lot of hands-on work, Brown said “there is a lot of book work” and computer skills involved.

For students considering the program, he said, “They have to like working with their hands” because they will get dirty. They also need to enjoy fixing things.

The Career Tech Center also offers auto collision repair courses.

“We learn the basic skills of assessing a dent and what it is going to take to fix it,” Teacher Jason Duren, who has been with the program for four years, said.

Duren said he enjoys working with the students and helping them “make a car pretty again.”

For students considering the program, he said it is “important that they like to work with their hands and make things look good.”

Clanton Fire Chief David Driver teaches in the fire fighter program offered at LeCroy. This is his fifth year teaching.

“I enjoy being able to teach them to allow them to learn, because I would have loved to have had this program when I was a in high school,” Driver said.

The program has a donated fire truck that allows them to learn on real equipment. Driving the vehicle, however, is not a part of the courses offered, Driver said.

Students who complete the program earn their volunteer fire fighter certification. This certification allows them to serve as volunteer firemen and attend an abbreviated course if they choose to pursue the career fire certification. Driver said the LeCroy course tries to give students the same experience they would have if they attended the Alabama Fire College, including a simulation of a house fire.

“It’s about half classroom, half outside,” Driver said.

Chilton County Schools students can take classes at LeCroy during their junior and senior year.

All of the programs at LeCroy have an interview process that was implemented this school year.