It’s always difficult when a teacher leaves, but it’s even harder when a hands-on class like woodshop is left without proper instruction. For nearly two months, the Alisal woodshop program had no permanent teacher, until Pablo Fregoso stepped in. 

Before becoming the woodshop teacher, Fregoso worked as campus security. As part of security, his responsibilities included ensuring student safety, supervising hallways and bathrooms, preventing conflicts, and watching over the campus. 

Aside from being campus security, Fregoso had an after school program where students could build their own lowrider bikes that he called “Ellis Art Metalworks” that began last year. Students brought their own bike frames where they built the bike from start to finish with Fregoso’s  guidance. They welded, bonded, did body work on the bikes, and painted them. 

This year, he  hasn’t hosted his bike workshop too much because of the demand of his new position. He aims to begin the bike building program later this semester.

Fregoso wasn’t able to start his new position at the beginning of the year because of delays from the credentialing office in Sacramento. “There was a lot of paperwork that I had to fill out, and it took about a good 4 months for them to approve everything and move me into a classroom,” he said.

He applied in May but wasn’t officially moved into the classroom until October. Because he doesn’t have traditional teaching credentials, he is working under CTE/ROP qualifications based on his work hours and is currently taking online classes after school to earn the required certification. “I’ve done construction, I’ve done tile work, I’ve done a lot of stuff like that,” he said. “It’s something I enjoy doing. And when this position came open. I talked to one of the main people from ROP, and he told me, ‘Just apply.’” 

Stepping into a class that had months of substitutes created challenges for classroom management. Students were used to doing whatever they wanted, but he says they’ve been respectful and understand that he is there to rebuild the class. “When I started here, I loved it and I just wanted to start giving back, help the youth out that we can,” Fregoso said.

During his first few weeks, he was focusing on tool safety, quizzes, and foundational knowledge; something students might find repetitive, but he emphasized it will help them in the long run. His goal is to begin hands-on building work as soon as possible. “So far, we learned just the safety of my friends and the students, the rulers, the numbers, what they stand for, just to be careful around your surroundings, pretty much,” senior Eric Ruiz said. 

Currently, the class is preparing for both school assigned projects and student choice projects. Fregoso mentioned ideas like chairs, desks, and small dog houses. While nothing huge can be built, he hopes to allow students to bring their ideas to life within realistic limits. “I hope we learn how to make big structures, like mini figures, bridges, boxes, furniture,” freshman Johnny Lopez said.

Ultimately, what he wants most is for students to gain practical life skills. He hopes students leave the class confident enough to fix things at home, measure and cut materials, and use tools safely, skills that will stay useful long after high school. “I’m hoping that when they get older and get out of high school,  if they had to cut a piece of board to make something, they could do it, or if they had to fix something in their house, they would be able to do it,” Fregoso said. 

Fregoso is really enjoying the class and finds it going well overall. He acknowledged that managing the students can be challenging at times, especially since many of the students are unfamiliar with the tools at first, but now that they’ve started using them, productivity has noticeably improved. “It’s kind of hard sometimes to get the kids in line because of the simple fact that they’ve never used these tools,” he said. “But now that we’re starting to use the tools, everybody’s really being very productive with it.” 

He’s committed to teaching the students as much as possible. Looking ahead to next year, he’s optimistic about having a fresh start and plans to set clear expectations from the beginning, emphasizing safety rules and his standards, which he believes will make the class run more smoothly and productively. “Next year at the beginning of the year, I could nip it in the bud and show them what I really want and expect from them,” Fregoso said.