A partnership between the Hills Beaver Creek High School and Harnack Builders has received a $14,000 LYFT Career Pathways Innovation grant. This project will be a hands-on learning experience where the students will be teamed up to design and build garden/storage/utility sheds. We would be partnering with Harnack Builders, a local contractor company. The CTE trades teacher, Mr. Louwagie would lead the class on instruction and oversee the work on a daily basis.

Harnack Builders would come in to do demonstrations, progress and work inspections. The grant money would be used to buy materials necessary to build garden/storage sheds. The storage sheds would then be for sale to the public at the cost of materials +15%. The fifteen percent would go towards new tools, maintenance of the tools we have and to purchase materials for new sheds in the future.

Students involved in the Patriot Builders class range from grades 10-12. Students would be involved in planning, designing and building the sheds. Harnack’s would be consulted to ensure we are ordering the correct materials and building quality sheds that will last.

The current set-up including industrial arts shop, tools and concrete outside pad would allow for our students to learn this CTE Trade of Carpentry and General Construction. The first shed built would be to store materials for class projects & future sheds to be purchased by the public.

This project would focus largely on carpentry and general construction skills which would carry over into both residential and commercial building and design, but it would also give them insight into different careers involved with construction. Companies involved in the construction trades are very short handed and a majority are constantly looking for new workers including summer help for high school students.

The goal of the project is for our students to learn basic general construction skills necessary for many of the trade fields in addition they will learn about the economic basics of supply and demand in a local community.

For more information contact Chris Louwagie at c.louwagie@isd671.net or (507)-962-3240 ext.250