Barbering Program at Lehman Excessive Faculty Altering Lives

KYLE, Texas (KXAN) — With every snip and buzz, the subsequent era of barbers is being constructed on a highschool campus.

Over at Lehman Excessive Faculty in Kyle, there’s a full barbershop referred to as Lobo Cuts. It’s the place 101 college students are taking quite a lot of programs for his or her future careers.

Lehman Excessive teacher Barbara Romerhausen says her program is protecting youngsters at school who could in any other case fall by way of the cracks.

“We’re altering lives, getting youngsters to remain at school, watching them change and drop dangerous habits,” she mentioned. “They’re selecting up higher habits and turning into employable.”

Hays CISD’s barbering program takes a complete of 4 years to finish. The children should clock 1,000 hours of labor earlier than being eligible to take a written take a look at to earn their state license.

Sergio Sanchez earned his license final spring and now works full-time as a barber.

“Once I was a child watching my dad get his haircut, he’d be laughing and every little thing,” he mentioned. “I made a decision that I needed to be that one who offers a smile and makes folks be ok with themselves.”

For freshmen and sophomores, barbering is just one class interval. However by their junior and senior yr, it jumps as much as three lessons per semester.

The Profession and Technical Schooling (CTE) program began in 2020, and final spring, its first group of graduates obtained licensed.

Certainly one of these college students was David Espinoza, who now works full-time at Barber Palace in Kyle.

“This metropolis by no means had loads of barbers till this program got here in,” he mentioned. “Now these outlets round listed here are getting extra barbers as a result of loads of us are coming in and making a residing for ourselves straight out of highschool.”

The CTE program additionally affords a way more inexpensive technique to turn out to be a barber.

In accordance with Hays CISD, barber colleges in Texas sometimes can value between $25,000-$30,000 in tuition.

But, the barbering program at Lehman Excessive prices college students round $700 in whole. This consists of the price of working permits, uniforms, kits and licensing exams.

Ylissa Lopez-Hernandez is a pupil at Lehman Excessive, hoping to finally turn out to be a barber.

“This program has been rising,” she mentioned. “It’s an important alternative to develop the complete barber trade.”

Hays CISD expanded its barbering program this yr, with Hays Excessive Faculty including a program of its personal.

This fall, there are already 48 college students signed up.