“There’s always a path to get to BART”: Mission Valley ROP students get rare look inside Hayward Maintenance Complex
Jose Cuellar, Assistant Component Repair Maintenance Shop Superintendent, holds up a detached BART seat on Dec. 9, 2022, during a tour with students from Mission Valley ROP.
On a balmy day in December, about thirty students from Mission Valley ROP disembarked a charter bus and filed into the warmth of the south canopy for the Component Repair Shop at BART’s Hayward Maintenance Complex.
Mission Valley ROP, a technical career training program for adults and high school students in Fremont (ROP stands for Regional Occupational Program), brought the high school seniors to the maintenance complex for one very important reason: to give them a glimpse into what their bright futures might hold.
The students were joined by Mission Valley ROP faculty members, including their auto shop teacher, Joshua Finley, as well as a host of BART employees, who took care to explain what was happening at each stop along the tour and to answer their many, many questions.
Marlon Lewis, Component Repair Maintenance Shop Superintendent, and students from Mission Valley ROP during a tour of Hayward Maintenance Complex.
“BART is facing workforce challenges along with other transit agencies across the nation,” explained Prem Bajaj, Manager of Workforce Development at BART. “There is a renewed focus on promoting transit careers to youth through workforce development programs and community partnerships to create a pipeline for the future generation of skilled workers.”
BART Director Liz Ames also joined group tour for the very rare look into the maintenance complex. She said she is incredibly “inspired by the youth wanting to come into the trades.”
“It’s inspiring to see these kids with so much hope and excitement for the future,” she said.
Pearls of wisdom were flung gently throughout the tour, as Marlon Lewis, Component Repair Maintenance Shop Superintendent, and Jose Cuellar, Assistant Component Repair Maintenance Shop Superintendent, slowly led the group through the complex. They stopped along the way at the HVAC workstation, the indisputably cool fabrication shop, the wheel press, and more. Electromechanical Repair Shop Senior Engineer Kent Van answered any technical questions as the group wove through the complex.
Students from Mission Valley ROP during a tour of Hayward Maintenance Complex on Dec. 9, 2022.
“I want to give you insight into the people working here and how they got here,” Lewis told the students. “Everyone here has a story.”
Lewis himself has a tale to tell; the Superintendent started at BART just over 20 years ago as a Utility Worker cleaning trains. He studied to earn an AS degree and became a Transit Vehicle Electronic Technician. From there, Lewis has risen quickly in the ranks at BART.
Lewis was not the only person on the premises with a story. Nick Grucza, a Transit Vehicle Mechanic in the shop, strolled past the tour while working and commented, “I went through the same program!”
Richard Severo, Assistant Chief Mechanical Officer, with students from Mission Valley ROP during a tour of Hayward Maintenance Complex on Dec. 9, 2022.
It was, by all accounts, an inspirational afternoon for the 28 students, who remained rapt throughout the tour. They described the field trip as “fun,” “cool,” and “interesting.”
After the tour completed, the students gathered in a conference room where three recruiters from BART discussed the application process and offered insight, including Alaric Degrafinried, Assistant General Manager, Administration, at BART.
“Don’t think there’s only one way to get these jobs. You’ll find life takes you left, right, backwards, and forwards,” Degrafinried said. “There’s always a path to get to BART.”