Starting the upcoming 2026-27 school year, MVHS will no longer be offering Introduction to Woodworking and Advanced Woodworking due to scheduled construction for the F buildings on the MVHS campus. Since MVHS is currently the only school in FUHSD that offers Woodshop courses, the district won’t offer any woodworking classes after this shift. The change was discussed among the various FUHSD and MVHS administrators in charge of the modernization project, including MVHS Principal Ben Clausnitzer. While the construction for the Woodshop buildings was initially scheduled before the reconstruction of the Art room in June 2022 and the Choir room in June 2023, it was ultimately pushed back to align with the retirement of the current Woodshop and Engineering teacher, Ted Shinta. 

The modernization of the MVHS campus will primarily focus on the F building for the upcoming school year, starting in June shortly after the Class of 2026’s graduation. According to Clausnitzer, the construction will begin in a similar style to the remodeling of the art, choir and instrumental music rooms. The spaces for Drama and Woodshop will be joined together to provide the Stagecraft Tech class — a class that teaches students the basics of stage management, backstage operations and prop construction — a wider space for instructional activity, and students will continue to have access to various Woodworking tools in the rooms once construction is completed. 

“When I spent my first year here at MVHS in 1999, all the schools in FUHSD had Woodshop, but some schools had gradually phased the classes out during the 1980s when they had massive cutbacks on electives due to revenue shortfalls,” Shinta said. “But they never got rid of the one at MVHS. There was always a push to increase these opportunities for more hands-on types of classes, and although there were some conversations about getting rid of the woodshop during the series of renovations and construction during 2001, they kept Woodshop going in a portable building in the staff parking lot all those years.” 

MVHS has offered two main Woodshop courses over the past few years: Introduction to Woodworking and Advanced Woodworking, both of which aligned with the Career Technical Education (CTE) pathway — a curriculum that aims to introduce students to hands-on problem solving and prepare students with technical skills in various career areas such as Engineering, Hospitality, Architecture, Public Services and Transportation. 

Apart from Woodshop, MVHS also used to offer various other courses within the CTE pathway. These courses included Electronics, Autoshop — a course that taught students basic automobile mechanics — and Drafting, which was similar to Introduction to Engineering Design but instead, focused on a paper version of Computer-Aided Designing, a process also known as Manual Drafting. These courses were ultimately closed due to declining enrollment and revenue shortages. In turn, as the past Drafting teacher with experience in metalworking and mechanical engineering, Shinta took on the role of the Woodshop teacher after the previous instructor retired, along with aiding the robotics and engineering programs.

Freshman Nathan Kuo, who currently takes Introduction to Woodworking, believes that the class provides him a chance to learn the technical aspects of Woodworking tools. He also believes that the class itself is structured relatively freely, where students are able to make projects they want, with Kuo himself creating various pens during his free time in the class.

Although Kuo has previously taken Woodshop classes in middle school and summer camps, he still feels that the Woodshop class at MVHS offers him a valuable experience. From carving wooden fish and pens to cutting boards, Kuo views the class as a welcoming space to try out different projects while learning skills that students can apply in academic fields. 

“Apart from helping students learn to follow instructions, I think it’s also taught me the value of doing something to the best of your ability, where you really want to do or make something for yourself, not for other people,” Kuo said. “Woodshop is also a very social class because of all the time you have to do the projects, so while you make those projects, you create your own memories as well.” 

Similar to Kuo, Shinta views the Woodshop class as a chance for students to create a product of their own. He believes that Woodshop serves as an important opportunity for students to explore art, while also providing a chance for students to dedicate time and energy to building technical skills while producing something that makes them proud of their work and craft. 

“The value of something like Woodshop is hard to quantify, because it’s not like we have a program to go into carpentry since it’s an elective for us,” Shinta said. “Woodshop is something that you do for yourself, and while there’s a whole industry that’s built around people doing it as a trade, woodshop is also a form of art itself, where it’s really the beauty of wood that we highlight. But I do think that without classes like these, students will have no practical experience of constructing or designing, which is going to leave a hole in their education, and as a result, if they want to go in that direction, they’ll have to pick it up some other way.”  

As MVHS phases out Woodshop for the upcoming school year, Stagecraft Tech is set to become an option for students who might still be interested in exploring the field of woodworking. Although the construction is planned to last until the second semester of the 2026-27 school year, Clausnitzer hopes that students will take advantage of the opportunity to engage in the different applications of Woodshop through theater. Additionally, Clausnitzer believes that the class has allowed students to explore and express themselves, and has shown to be a valuable asset to the opportunities MVHS offers.

“Of course there are always courses that students take for graduation or for A-G credit for colleges,” Clausnitzer said. “However, I do also appreciate when we have courses that students are simply taking for the fun and joy of learning a new skill that might become a life skill. It’s part of the philosophy we want in terms of a comprehensive high school experience: it doesn’t always have to be about resume building — or for graduation or college — but just for the experience. Woodshop might fall into that kind of category, because someone might take the class, find their passion for it, and it could end up helping them in the future, and I want there to be room for students to do that here at MVHS.”