Last month, he persuaded a former student who now pumps gas at a local service station to return to school. The hardest thing is to convince people to come back. For many, he said, school doesn't conjure up fond memories. But night school is different. They tell us what they want.
Night school is surely a different animal.
The pace is slower. The hallways are quiet, and there are few, if any, loud announcements made on the public address system. In some classes, only a handful of students are sprinkled among the many desks, and teachers have more time to address individual concerns or questions. After more than two decades at Dartmouth Finishing, Mr. Pacheco suddenly found himself out of a job when the plant closed last March. That's all I've done for 22 years.