Triumph Oil Spill Grant To Re-Establish Automotive Services Academy At Tate High School

October 20, 2024

An Automotive Service Academy will be created at Tate High School, thanks to a Triumph Gulf Coast grant.

The Triumph Board voted to approve a grant of up to $617,227 to Escambia County Public Schools to re-establish the Automotive Service Academy at Tate High School.
Triumph funds will be used to renovate and equip the former Auto Body building with modern equipment and hands-on labs for the Automotive Service Academy.

“This Triumph grant provides our students with opportunities to grow in the classroom with hands-one opportunities and allows us to expand the programs we can offer our students here on campus,” Tate Principal Laura Touchstone said. “It gives us the opportunity to give back to the community. Obviously, there is a need in the community for automotive, and by us having that academy, we are preparing our students for the workforce.”

Students will troubleshoot, diagnose, and repair vehicles, as well as provide routine maintenance on a variety of modern automobiles. This project will have a classroom academic component, but the primary learning environment will be the academy’s automotive service shop and will guarantee completion of 225 Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certificates by the end of the 2029-2030 academic year.

Triumph Gulf Coast is a nonprofit corporation organized to oversee the expenditure of 75 percent of all funds recovered by the Florida attorney general for economic damages to the state that resulted from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

NorthEscambia.com graphic.

Comments

8 Responses to “Triumph Oil Spill Grant To Re-Establish Automotive Services Academy At Tate High School”

  1. bob c on October 22nd, 2024 1:35 pm

    This is Wonderful for young people wanting to work with their hands and minds to solve and repair, maintain vehicles.
    After high school can get a good paying job and have Zero student loan burden.
    Have said, and mean, many times that the folks who work on the brakes for my truck are more important than my medical doctors. I depend upon them to make sure my vehicle runs, operates properly and stops when needed so they are a very important part of my life.
    Thanks to all in our Service Industries…..Y’all are GREAT.
    About time that the “Educators” figured this out….

  2. JTV on October 20th, 2024 9:00 pm

    Awesome, bring back a lot more of these programs. All that lottery money that was promised to Florida education has been slowly moved over to bright future college scholarships. Help k-12, not after that.

  3. Cb on October 20th, 2024 2:34 pm

    I am so happy to see this. I was in autobody at tate all through high-school until I graduated in 2007. I still to this day keep up with Mr. Rich chandler who was a great teacher. Glad to see the old building being put back to good use of training our younger generation. I also think they need to implement a welding class for kids who are interested in the welding field. I’d be more than happy to come in my time off and help teach kids to weld at tate.

  4. dave lamb on October 20th, 2024 1:48 pm

    I rebuilt and painted a Farmall in the Tate shop class in 1965. more trades need taught to high school students now.

  5. Bella on October 20th, 2024 12:38 pm

    I am so happy to see this! Far too many programs have been deleted over the last several years. Way to go Tate.

  6. Great news on October 20th, 2024 11:00 am

    This is great news, but I’m taking it that this will be more towards auto mechanics and not auto body repair like in the past?

  7. Oversight on October 20th, 2024 10:54 am

    About time.

  8. Class of 80 Tater on October 20th, 2024 9:51 am

    This is great news and I’m sure will interest many students. And the fact that they can earn an ASE certificate should help prepare them in their job hunting. Way to go Aggies!!

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