School bond would upgrade vo-tech

Gone are the days where high school vo-tech classes consisted of auto or wood shop alone.

Today's high school students have a variety of options to choose from and if voters approve the Mountain Home School District's $37.5 million bond on April 29, those options will be available to more Mountain Home High School students.

The high school's professional technical program, the term preferred over vo-tech or vocational technical, consists of automotive mechanics, industrial mechanics, carpentry, video productions and editing, drafting classes, health occupations and professional applications.

The school district feels those classes are important because they teach students skills to be successful out of high school.

"It's very important because not every kid wants to go to college," Superintedent Tim McMutrey said. "We try to provide a well-orientated education."

Auto mechanics instructor Lynn Knudson is quick to point out students that do go on to college or other post-secondary schools can use skills learned from the professional technical program to work while in school.

He feels professional technical programs not only help students stay in school, but also keeps them focused in other classes.

"Student's aren't just interested in government and English, but they will take these classes and pass them if they know they need them to take advanced (professional technical) classes," Knudson said.

With limited space in advanced professional technical classes, teachers often look at a student's overall grades before accepting them into an advanced class.

Despite the advantages of having a professional technical program, the biggest limitation to students isn't the options available, it's the space available for students to participate in classes already offered.

Due to limited classroom space, not all students are able to enroll in the professional technical classes and classrooms are crowded with students and equipment.

The bond, as part of the Phase II plan to complete the junior high as a high school, includes plans to turn the current district maintenance compound area into a professional technical program center, which would nearly double the size of the current building.

Maintenance would most likely move into the auto shop and the rest of the annex would be used for junior high classrooms.

"The plan is not to go down and tear down buildings that could be used by the district," Knudson said.

With more space, and additional teachers, students would be able to maximize their experience in the professional technical programs. Not only would more students be able to enroll in the classes, they would learn more in class, he believes.

Knudson said the increased space would give his students more opportunity to do more live work since his biggest challenge is finding enough room to set up equipment and demo procedures before students can work on their own.

Because of the space limitation, his Auto 1 and 2 classes are limited in the amount of live work they can do.

Doug Root, the carpentry, drafting and video production and editing instructor, said his carpentry class is limited to 65 students. He said the class could expand to 120 students if there was more room.

He would also like to see his advanced classes expanded into longer periods because a large part of class time is spent traveling to and from the job sites. Additional instructors would make that a possibility.

Root's classes focus mainly on carpentry with a little bit of time spent on cabinetry. He said if the bond passes, he could offer carpentry and cabinetry with the bigger shop.

"Students would be well rounded when they come out with skill in carpentry and cabinetry," Root said.

The additional space isn't just a luxury, it's a necessity in some of the classrooms as equipment and work spaces are crammed together, district officials believe.

Nowhere is that more evident then the school's industrial mechanic class, more commonly referred to as welding, where welding equipment and work spaces seem to overlap, causing potential safety issues.

Industrial mechanic instructor Larry Mulalley said he has an average of 22 students a class period, which causes cramped quarters.

"A less cramped environment would be less of a safety risk," he said.

In Root's drafting class, there appears to be plenty of room in the computer lab where he holds class. What there isn't enough of in the computer lab are teachers, as Root is forced to hold three drafting courses in one class period so that other classes can be held in the same room and he can teach additional classes throughout the day.

The drafting program also would benefit from the increased space because the space would give students the room to use the large desk to learn how to draft plans manually.

Root's drafting class isn't the only time he teaches more than one class at a time. He also teaches video production and advanced editing in one class.

The same plan that would nearly double the professional technical programs center also means the professional technical programs would be available to freshman, since the Phase II plan calls for moving the 9th-grade classes into the high school.

"If they find something they are interested in in ninth grade, they are less likely to drop out," Johnson said. "If you give a kid a reason to say, 'wow, this is cool,' and a reason to come to school, hopefully they are less likely to drop out."

Knudson said the school is looking into a freshman exploratory program where students would be exposed to auto and industrial mechanics, construction and possibly electrical science. "This gives students the opportunity to figure out the path they want to take," Knudson said.

The goal of the professional technical program, according to Knudson is to train as many students as possible that want to take professional technical classes and to stop pushing students away those that want to participate in them, as the district is forced to do at present.