Sean C Morgan
Sweet Home High School students are filling classes for next school year that will allow them to work on products from design through production.
Business teacher Ammon Mills has taken delivery of a new laser cutter and a new 9-foot printer, along with new computer monitors, to start a new career and technical education program. The district has ordered new computers and desks for the program.
The district is funding the new equipment with Measure 98 funds. Voters approved the measure in November 2016, directing funding to programs that improve progress toward graduation beginning with the ninth grade, improve graduation rates and improve high school graduates’ college and career readiness. Funding is targeted toward dropout prevention, Career Technical Education programs and college-level education opportunities.
“It’s one of our Measure 98 approaches to increasing graduation and reducing dropouts,” said Principal Ralph Brown.
“Just like with the forestry program, the emphasis is to get their hands (busy) in skill-based learning,” said Kristin Adams, SHHS Measure 98 success coordinator. The goal is for students to leave high school with skills and something to offer employers.
In the new program, students will work with industry-standard software and hardware, Adams said. Even if students don’t go into related careers, the program will give them skills that can help them through college, for example, preparing presentations in their classes.
“The CTE designation is product development,” said Mills. It consists of six classes offered throughout the year: Marketing I, Marketing II, Entrepreneurship, Computer-Aided Drafting, Introduction to Engineering and Product Design.
Much of the program has already existed, but Mills has earned CTE certification and two classes, Introduction to Engineering and Product Design, are being introduced.
The classes are spread out across the three trimesters of the school year.
“All of them are at least sophomore level, and a couple of them are junior and senior,” Mills said. Throughout the program, students will design and produce products that ultimately will be for sale.
The program has the equipment to make shirts, hats and apparel, Mills said.
“They’ll design something, and they’ll actually produce it, actually bringing it to life,” Adams said. They’ll be able to do everything themselves.
One SHHS graduate, Gavin Redick, has already done this, and years later, he continues to market his own branded apparel, Mills said. And a couple of seniors this year have been developing their own.
The laser cutter and engraver went into the classroom last week, and Mills’ students have already used it extensively, building a wooden dice rolling tower – the dice go in the top, roll around as they fall inside the box and exit at the bottom. Students also created six-sided cardboard dice for use in the tower.
They’ve been etching designs onto wooden rounds, and they’ve been busy etching their own designs into ornaments for the national Christmas tree.
The designs are good too, Brown said. He thought they were stock images taken from the Internet and was surprised to learn that students designed the images themselves.
“I was just blown away,” he said. “They were really good. They looked like something you’d see in clip art.”
The program can make banners and posters, and it has a vinyl cutter, allowing students to design vinyl decals.
“I’m just really happy that we have this opportunity for kids.”
Mills said the current computers are 5 to 6 years old, and the new computers, using Intel i7 processors and GTX 1070 graphics cards, are needed to operate current CAD and graphics software.
“Kids involved in CTE classes graduate at a higher level than kids who are not in CTE classes,” Brown said, and Mills is endorsed for CTE and for college preparation classes.
“I think my main goal is to keep kids more interested,” Mills said. “They’re hands-on. They’re making stuff.”
Similar to a wood shop class, he added, “They see the results instantly.”
Students apply what they learn in other classes, such as math, Mills said. In work with CAD, they have to apply geometry.
“I tried to base it on what students have said they want to do and what students have done,” Mills said. “It should do well, I think.”
“It’s a different type of CTE, a different side,” Brown said.
He hopes it will attract more students to CTE than have traditionally taken those classes.
“It’s exciting. It’s one of those thoughtful decisions to invest the Measure 98 funds in Ammon’s program. It’s opening up more opportunities for our kids.”
From marketing to engineering, CTE is “a profession that’s in demand,” said district Supt. Tom Yahraes. It mixes ingenuity and creativity, and “I think it makes learning more relevant and applicable.”
“Mr. Mills is absolutely the right person for that job in our school,” Brown said. “He’s only had the machine a short period of time, and he’s already producing something. He got it out of the box and kind of just got it fired up.”