A change in focus will mean changes in the classroom for Iola High School industrial arts students this year.
Unlike past years, during which the students’ main project was to build a single-family house somewhere in the Iola area, this year’s class will focus on multiple smaller projects.
Following a two-week session on workplace safety and tool operation certification to start the fall semester, students began their first project in earnest Monday, a playground play set.
The wooden structure will sport a pair of towers, two slides, a swinging bridge and other amnesties, instructor Cody Hager said.
All told, it should take the seven building trades students about a month to finish the play set. Once finished, Hager plans to take bids on the play set. He estimates about $1,200 worth of materials will be used.
ANOTHER TEACHER in the school district has approached Hager about purchasing a second play set, which should be acceptable, he said. Another has inquired about a chicken coop.
“And if we have time next semester, I’d be interested in a shed,” Hager said.
All that’s important is that the district recoup its costs — particularly vital for USD 257, which has had about $2 million in state funding cut from its budget the past few years. The tight budget forced the district to alter its building trades focus this year, Superintendent of Schools Brian Pekarek said.
“You don’t know what the state is going to do, and there is an awful lot of capital we would be sitting on in terms of supplies,” Pekarek said.
And if the district cannot sell a house within a given year, budgets grow even tighter.
“We still have the building trades program in place” in case the budget climate clears, Pekarek said.
THIS YEAR marks Hager’s first as building trades instructor. He has been with IHS the past four years as a woodworking and drafting instructor.
“I know most of the kids and they know me,” he said. “They get a lot of hands-on training and learn safety, things they can take with them into the future.”
