By Devon Cormier
Staff Writer

A driver’s education teacher has disappeared mid-course, leaving students from Hooksett and Auburn without a way to finish their classes.

Armand LaSelva, the superintendent of SAU 15, said that after he found out that Safe-T Driving School’s license was suspended, he tried to contact the school to tell them to stop teaching until paperwork renewing the license was completed with the state. However, Safe-T never responded to the calls and e-mails, but teachers just stopped showing up. The problem, LaSelva said, is that the driving school has a list of students but the SAU does not.

“As an SAU, we have no idea who signs up,” said LaSelva. “Students sign up directly with the driving school, so we’ve been at a loss, not knowing how to contact students.”

LaSelva said he posted signs at the schools after terminating the classes because of the license suspension, but students were still confused because LaSelva does not know the reason for the license suspension. LaSelva found out about the suspension which, after noncompliance by the driving school, turned into an expired license, but LaSelva has no idea what the suspension was issued for.

“I just don’t know where we are with all of this,” said LaSelva. “We feel very foolish.”

LaSelva said driving schools are contracted at the beginning of the year. Because of Safe-T’s early departure, LaSelva has asked Jack’s Driving School to step in. Jack’s will hold a meeting at the Cawley School at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 20. The SAU intends to get contact information for students who sign up for driver’s education at the beginning of classes from now on, LaSelva said.

But in the meantime, the SAU needs to contact Safe-T to get the list of students for Jack’s to contact and to get some reimbursement. LaSelva said that he believes students paid all different prices to Safe-T, which may make reimbursements more complicated.

“The SAU wants to assure the students that there should be no financial loss or loss in time they spent trying to pursue their driver’s education,” said LaSelva.

As of press time, Safe-T was still unreachable. Driver’s education students would be finishing up about now, but had only three of the classes that were supposed to run from early December to mid-January.

Both Safe-T Driving School and instructor Ted Tzimopoulos are listed at a Harrison Street, Manchester address and failed to return messages left there.

If your child was a student at the canceled classes and you have questions, you can call SAU 15 at 622-3731 for more information.