Drivers' ed road course teacher stumps for county program

It's been more than two decades but Stonewall Jackson High School drivers' education teacher Gary Fekete still remembers the one student he lost to a car crash.

On a motorcycle his parents bought him, the boy drove around a school bus with its stop sign out -- only to smash into an oncoming vehicle.

"I think about the kid every day," Fekete said. "I take it [this job] very, very seriously."

Fekete has been teaching teens how to drive for the last 10 years and has more than 30 years with Prince William County Public Schools.

But the drivers' ed road course program in the school division may come to a halt.

Superintendent Steven L. Walts' 2011 budget proposes eliminating the program and saving the school division roughly $1.7 million. That equates to 20 teaching positions and $76,000, plus in annual insurance and fuel and maintenance costs.

The driver's ed cuts are part of an unprecedented $79 million budget shortfall. That number could grow depending on state funding.

Associate Superintendent for Finance and Support Services David Cline praised the drivers' ed program, but added that the budget needs to be balanced and in order to do so, programs that are not required are more expendable.

"Given our druthers, we'd keep it," Cline said. "None of the cuts are anything we want to be doing. But we have to make cuts to balance the budget and to the extent of priorities, we have to stick with required programs first."

Every sophomore is required to take a drivers' ed classroom course per state law. After completing the course, there are typically about 200 students per school who are able to get spots in the respective road course classes.

The rest either has to take theroad course class at a private school or wait until they are 19 years old before taking their driver's test at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Matt Caudle is one of two drivers' ed teachers at Battlefield. He said the impact of eliminating this program would be far-flung, affecting everything from safety of the public, what private drivers' ed schools can charge and what extracurricular activities the students would be able to participate in after school.

Rates at area driving schools range from $297 to $450, while students at Prince William high schools pay $275.

"It's not just impacting [the students]," Caudle said. "It's affecting the mom in the minivan with kids, and the elderly. ... And if some people can't afford [to pay for drivers' ed], they are just going to get in their car and drive without it."

Osbourn Park drivers' ed teacher Jo Ellen Suter has been working at the Manassas area high school for 31 years, teaching a variety of subjects. A board member of the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association, Suter said she is more concerned about the children's safety than losing her job or being transferred to another school.

The latter scenario is a possibility under the county's overstaffing and reductions in force policies, said Cline.

After a rash of fatalities involving teenage drivers in 2004-05 in Northern Virginia, Prince William schools joined with Allstate insurance company and the county police department to better educate families about safe driving.

Judging by the numbers, the program has been effective at reducing crashes. According to Suter, crashes involving Prince William County student drivers went from 303 in 2004-05 to 41 in 2007-08.

A school division press release last July states that for every 100 students who completed the driver education licensing process through county schools in 2007-08, only 2.19 students have an accident in their first year as a driver.

This is a decrease from 3.29 students in the 2006--07 school year.

"We do make a difference," Suter said. "This is a life skill, that's what bothers me the most [about the budget cut]."

According to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, there were 714 crashes involving Prince William County drivers ages 15 to 19 in the first nine months of 2009. In the last 13 months, three Prince William County students (one passenger, two drivers) were killed in crashes involving teen drivers.

Weather and road conditions played a significant part in the first two accidents, while excessive speed was to blame in the latest fatal wreck, which occurred on Dale Boulevard in January.

The Prince William County School Board will hold a public hearing on the superintendent's proposed 2011 budget and Capital Improvements Program Monday at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of Stonewall Jackson High School in Manassas.

Residents may sign up to speak at the public hearing through the School Board Clerk's Office until noon March 1 by calling 703-791-8709 or by e-mailing dentaj@pwcs.edu.

Residents may also sign up Monday at the entrance to the school auditorium door from 5 to 5:55 p.m.

Residents must sign up by these deadlines in order to speak. Each speaker will have up to two minutes to make comments.

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-878-8062.