Fate of City Colleges Aeronautics Program Still in Question, But a Dim Light Remains for Its Return

By John R. Adkins
jradproduction@gmail.com

 

Former City College Chancellor Mark Rocha paces in front of a classroom of students, all eager to graduate and enter San Francisco’s workforce. Their hands itching to one day be turning over the turbines of the 737 jet engines that ship in the city’s tourists, taxpayers, and corporate executives.

“You are special people, so you need to honor the commitment that you’ve made… and finish,” he told City College’s aircraft mechanic students. “This program is permanent; it’s here to stay…” 

He made that promise in May 2019.

“2019 was really the last gasping breath of that program,” said former aircraft mechanic student Justin Lee. “All the mechanics talked about it; it was kind of an open secret that we were living on borrowed time and that really brought down morale.”

Shielded only by his prescription sunglasses, Lee sits beside the tarmac of San Carlos airport, speaking over the blare of twin engine turboprops taxiing towards the runway and reminiscing over the fallout of the program. 

 Lee has had a lifelong passion for aviation, having been enrolled in City College’s Aircraft Maintenance Technology (AMT) program part-time from the fall of 2016-19. He had planned on returning to the program to finish his final few courses after taking a gap year, but by March 2020, the program had been shut down.

“Heartbreaking to see a cornerstone trade program get so poorly mismanaged,” he added.

Lee is one of many students who were left stranded with unfinished degrees.
“The need for mechanics has exploded and United was gobbling up every single mechanic that walked out of that program with an A&P license,” Lee said. In 2019 there was about a 20-30-person waitlist per class.”

Enormously popular, City College’s AMT program had a diverse student body. From retired military to single mothers looking for a career change, individuals who took classes full-time could, in two years, be guaranteed employment earning close to six figures in a booming industry – all without needing an expensive degree. 

Now, four years since the program initially stalled out, the loss of the program has created a vacuum of San Francisco-based aircraft mechanics in the industry.

“When it came to the leasing negotiations, CCSF should have realized that this is a very valuable program, not just for the airport, but for the community,” Lee said.

The airport itself generates thousands of jobs annually and is growing every year, especially in the form of mechanics. As a result, the money that the mechanics earn from the airlines should go back into the community. However, now that the program is no longer there, major airlines like United are forced to hire mechanics from outside and bring them to San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

Back in February 2023, United Airlines posted a job listing seeking Aircraft Maintenance technicians in San Francisco that included a $25,000 relocation bonus and a whopping $50,000–$75,000 sign-on bonus.

 “Truth be told, a lot of the mechanics who come from out of state never rent an apartment or buy a house because they think it’s too expensive,” Lee said. “What they tend to do is buy an RV, park it in employee parking, and then, once it’s time for a vacation, they go back home with all their San Francisco salary money and live like kings.” 

It was only a couple of months after the 2023 job posting was listed that United Airlines decided to reopen communication with City College, having since realized their tap of work-hungry, locally sourced mechanics had run dry.

The major airline’s newfound demand has been the only viable chance for the AMT program’s revival at City College. In the four years since the program initially shut down, little to no solutions have been provided by the college’s administration. 

In February 2021, a public forum was held to “Save the CCSF Airport Campus.” The SF Board of Supervisors, SF Labor Council, and CCSF Associated Students all gathered to discuss the future of the program. 

However, despite receiving a direct call out, as well as questions prepared in advance, City College administration’s only presence at the meeting was the brief statement read aloud by representative Rosie Zepeda, who made herself “unavailable” for questions. 

“The reality is that if the AMT program was still housed at SFO, we would not find ourselves in this position, or engage in conversations of its future,” Zepeda said.

On July 19, 1977, SFO agreed to take on the humble City College program for a 40-year lease agreement that allowed the school to lease “Plot 20” for just $1 a year due to the aeronautical nature of the education and the ability to create a workforce training program for future SFO employees.

The expiration date of the lease was June 30, 2017. On June 29, 2016, SFO notified City College that it would not be renewing the lease due to the airport’s “need to recapture the space for its capital program.” 

The airport then allowed City College to remain on a month-to-month basis beyond the initial date of termination.

While it remained apparent that the program was undervalued by SFO, the airport was acting in accordance with official FAA recommendations.

According to the FAA recommendation, “Since SFO is only receiving $1 per year for the City College’s use of the property, providing the space to a FMV [Fair Market Value] rent tenant or developing the property for a capital program provides the best optimal advantage for the airport.” The statement goes on to cite the airport’s requirement to “maintain a fee and rental structure for the facilities and services at the airport which will make the airport as self-sustaining as possible” under Grant Assurance 24. 

Despite the airport’s pressure to offload City College, it is no secret that the AMT program’s demise could have been prolonged if not prevented altogether. 

As far as SFO was concerned, potential sublease agreements with a third-party like United was City College’s only opportunity to stay. United Airlines initially offered a three-year lease in 2020, to which the college replied with a request for a 50- to 99-year lease. This counter-offer apparently came at the expense of their last viable solution and negotiations came to a close.

The idea of juggling the program into the already busy Evans Center campus was entertained long enough to conduct a scientific report of the environmental impact the AMT program would have on the Bayview community.

Back in August 2021, City College released a public ‘Mitigated Negative Declaration for the Updated CCSF Evans Center Renovation and AMT Program Relocation.’ A mitigated negative declaration (MND) can only be prepared when there is found to be no significant adverse impact on the environment in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act.

However, the Bayview community expressed concerns about the potential noise pollution of airplane engines. Finally, on June 13, 2024, at the Board Facilities Master Planning and Oversight Committee Meeting, it was stated that the  architectural plans for the Evans Center renovations were modified to meet “AMT Acoustical Requirements.” 

The modified contract with Gelfand Partners Architects extends the expiration date of June 2024 by three years to May 2027. It was stated that the “project schedule extension was caused by the prolonged decision-making process to integrate the Aircraft Maintenance Technology (AMT) program into Evans Center.”

Although it has not yet been determined if the AMT program will be housed at Evans in the future, at least the door remains open to the possibility.

“Everyone was immediately skeptical of the Evans Center solution,” Justin Lee said. “We were all thinking great, now we have to try to share a space designed for auto mechanics. Airplanes can take up as much space as 10 cars.” Lee said.

When the program initially shut down, all of the college’s cumbersome aircraft maintenance equipment was hauled away from the airport in 21 trailers, costing City College $150,000 in transport and storage. The trailers sat stained with graffiti on Ocean campus for a couple of years before the school finally decided to offload the majority of what had been rescued, and relocated what remained of the “larger, harder to obtain pieces of equipment” to Evans Center, as confirmed by Dean David Yee.

“Bit of a joke that they were still paying money to keep the equipment stored because a lot of it was honestly more worth their weight in scrap than actually being able to run.” Lee explained.

“City College seems to be almost anti-vocation, and tends to focus more on the Silicon Valley tech industry since that’s where the money is around here,” Lee added.

As time went on, the idea of the City College AMT program ever returning was slipping away into the past. That is until United Airlines decided to reopen communication with City College.

“They’re currently analyzing their existing space and taking into account the needs of the program. Can they find the space for us? Or do they need to build a whole new facility? Right now, they’re just exploring their options,” said Dean David Yee of his communications with United Airlines. 

Yee met with the United SFO team in June 2023 and is now waiting for United to agree to a concept. The chancellor’s report from February 22, 2024 confirmed the “ongoing discussions” between Yee, United Airlines, and the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

“When we met in June of last year, things really seemed to be progressing, but it slowed down towards the end of the year. I think it was around October or November time that I was supposed to meet with United again, but they had to cancel,” explained Yee.

“Instead of this just being a conversation with United’s local chapter at SFO, now it’s a conversation with United at the corporate level,” Yee said, adding “They have to assess post-pandemic travel demands, and future demands for aircraft mechanics.” Yee said he may try to check in with the airline at some point in the coming weeks.

The most recent report from consulting firm Oliver Wyman shows the aviation industry was expected to see a shortage of 12,000–18,000 aircraft mechanics in 2023.

“It doesn’t surprise me that United is trying to open up communications again,” Justin Lee said. “The rumor was at the time, United was trying to help the College stem the bleeding. It felt like they wanted this program a lot more than City College did. If they were desperate to keep the program alive, they would have acquiesced with United’s terms the first time around.”

Students like Lee point to the failures of the administration’s mismanagement of a program that provided real economic value to San Francisco, while the administration can complain that SFO’s refusal to renew the lease. 

SFO and its public information officer can point to pressure from the FAA recommendations to rent the building at “fair market value,” but wherever the buck is passed, the fact remains that 75 students that were already enrolled in the program were asked to vacate Plot 20 so that the site could be utilized for other SFO developments. 

Perhaps the most striking revelation is that Plot 20, some four years later, has remained virtually untouched. Wall graphics and aviation art still cover the classroom walls, papers are strewn across the floor and some of the lights in the building have been left on. It’s eerie, as though the airport locked the doors on City College’s way out and abandoned the building to sit empty and useless.

While City College’s Aeronautics headquarters sits untouched on SFO grounds, United Airlines offers $25,000 relocation bonuses for mechanics to come from out of state and sleep in the employee parking lot.

“That does bring me hope that the maintenance program is coming back, but my concern is how are they going to handle the students who were just left stranded,” Justin Lee said. “A lot of other student mechanics went straight to either Alameda or other programs where they had to start from scratch, but there could also be stragglers like me who still have the transcript on record.”

When asked if he would finish his degree should the program return Lee replied, “If they brought back the program funded by United, and United had at least a say in how the money was being spent and how the training would work, I would probably give it a shot…I trust United more than City College when it comes to decisions regarding a vocational program.”

Former student Justin Lee had much to say about the program’s shortcomings. It seems that even with long waitlists, the program remained understaffed and generally disorganized.

He added, “However, all that in mind, the program really did offer the chance at a better career path without the need of a college degree. It was there, it existed as real opportunities for people in the community, we did have the equipment, and we did have the staff. It’s just a shame … the only people that really seemed to care were the ones who could really stand to benefit from the program like United.”