You figure the last high school teacher you'd want to lay off is the one who is training students for jobs that are available and that need workers right now.
You'd figure wrong.
Russ Martin, who has been teaching auto shop at San Fernando High School since 1993, is one of more than 5,000 teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District to receive a "reduction in force" letter in the mail.
Unless the district pulls off a budgetary miracle, most of the educators will be out of a job come June 30. And while there is a complex formula for deciding who gets a pink slip, Martin may lose his job after 24 years because auto shop classes at the school are being dropped.
A lot of people I talk to think Martin should be receiving a letter of commendation - not his walking papers - from the district.
The 52-year-old auto shop teacher has taught his students skills that have helped hundreds of them get good-paying jobs in the auto industry.
"The very thing we're trying to accomplish, jobs for young people, we're defeating with his layoff," says Karl Boeckmann, vice president of Galpin Ford.
Galpin dealerships have hired more than 25 of Martin's former students over the years, including Rudy Romero, a certified master technician.
It's the same at Hamer Toyota, Rydell Chevrolet, Keyes Automotive and other dealerships and car repair shops around the Valley.
Check who's looking under the hood of the
car in the service bay, and you're likely to find one of Russ Martin's old students from San Fernando High."A lot of people think shop class is a place for the leftovers, but it isn't like that," says Romero, who has been with Galpin for 15 years.
"Russ pointed a lot of students, like me, in the right direction, and gave us the tools we needed to get good jobs right out of high school."
Al Jimenez, auto shop teacher at North Hollywood High, is a former student of Martin's, and Joe Agruso, auto shop teacher at Van Nuys High School, was recruited by Martin from Galpin Ford to take his teaching job.
"Russ is a guy who's been an inspirational force in this community. There are so many mechanics who wouldn't have their jobs if it wasn't for him."
Jobs that are "in one of the city's most vital industries," said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa recently, announcing four car dealerships, including Galpin, that will provide paid internships for automotive-technician students at Pierce College.
Many of Martin's students transfer to Pierce to complete a two-year automotive course to become certified mechanics.
Car dealers told the mayor's office they needed to bring in new workers to supplement an aging work force.
"My kids (about 150 a year take his auto shop classes) can't stick out four years in college," Martin says. "They need jobs now."
I tried to contact San Fernando High School Principal Ken Lee to find out why the auto shop was being dropped when the industry needs young mechanics, but he did not return phone calls.
When Martin got his pink slip from the district a few Saturdays ago, he started preparing for the worst, he said.
Married with three kids, he earns $70,000 a year - and that includes teaching night school auto shop after his day classes.
"I've cancelled the cable and home phone, and I'm trying to sell the family van," he said Monday. "I'm just getting prepared.
"If this was any other year, I might think this was temporary. But I look at the economy today and think we're headed for a cold winter."
Heck of a thank you for a guy who delivered all those jobs for his students over the years.
Dennis McCarthy's column appears in the Los Angeles Daily News on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Contact him at dennis.mccarthy@dailynews.com.
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