EDGELEY, N.D. — The Edgeley Public School District in partnership with the Southeast Region Career and Technology Center opened the Career Academy in Edgeley that educators say allows them to expand their offerings to students.
The Career Academy is located just east of Edgeley Public School.
The Edgeley Public School District is a member of the Southeast Region Career and Technology Center.
The new 11,000-square-foot building includes spaces for automotive technology, animal science, agriculture education and engineering, metal fabrication, ag processing, culinary arts and classroom space for health and medical careers.
“This career academy will allow Edgeley Public School to expand current class offerings and to continue to implement the industry’s best technology and standards,” said Tyler Hanson, superintendent of the school district, in an email to The Jamestown Sun. “In addition to benefiting students, this building will also enhance community resources by creating an up-to-date gathering space for community activities.”
Construction on the project began in December with completion this fall.
The cost of the project was $4.1 million with $2.3 million of it possible through a grant from North Dakota Department of Career and Technical Education.
“Furthermore, we are accepting donations throughout the greater community of private, corporate, alumni, and municipal donors, which will underscore the widespread support for this building,” Hanson said in an email.
Edgeley High School Principal Morgan Schwartzenberger said all students in grades 7-12 have an opportunity to take career and technical education classes at the new building. He also said a few students from the Kulm Public School District also come to Edgeley to participate in automotive technology classes.
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“We can expand that to more,” he said. “Now that we have a facility that meets all of those multiple areas, they could come over for multiple opportunities as well.”
He said other surrounding school districts could come to Edgeley and take classes at the Career Academy if they are members of the Southeast Region Career and Technology Center. He said Ellendale and Kulm school districts are members of the Southeast Region Career and Technology Center.
“Ellendale currently goes to Oakes but they could have the opportunity to come here if things change based on their district needs,” he said.
Cameron Young, agriculture education teacher, said the new building creates more opportunities for students to get experience in hands-on trades.
“Before we had the building, we provided most of the things that we have … but we had to do it on a smaller scale or a limited scale,” he said.
Schwartzenberger said the school district offers senior students opportunities for work placement or a cooperative work experience by partnering with businesses in Edgeley.
Inside the Career Academy
The building has a commercial kitchen.
“Anything that you need cooked, canned, is in here,” Hanson said.
Cheyenne Ketterling, agriculture education teacher, said she teaches students about where food comes from and how to cook it.
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“I tell them they need to be an informed consumer,” she said, referring to food labels and prices. “So if you can make a lot of food yourself and prepare it, it will save you a lot of money in the long run too.”
The Career Academy has a classroom that will be used for teaching about medical careers and health monitoring. Hanson said the room, which is next door to the commercial kitchen, can also be used for a community gathering as well.
“If we have an entity that needs to have a meeting, they also want a meal so our kids will cater a meal and bring it in here for the meeting,” he said.
The building also has more space where students can work on wood or metal projects. The space includes all the different tools used for carpentry work.
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“The extra space is going to be huge here,” she said.
In the larger shop room, Ketterling said students are being prepared for future careers as well as life skills.
“We try to prepare students for any career they go into whether they go directly into the workforce, whether they go to two-year or four-year (college) or plus after that, we just try to prepare them for any life skills that they have,” she said.
Young said that space allows him to have students construct a smaller shed, which they didn’t have before the Career Academy was completed.
“A lot of times we wouldn’t start until the middle or end of April,” he said. “It might not get done and might not see the whole process through the end because we were doing it outside.”
Joe Weigel, teacher for the automotive technology program, said the old automotive shop only had two stalls and the space was shared with welding booths and metal fabrication. The automotive space in the Career Academy has three bays and is separate from welding booths and metal fabrication.
“There’s three vehicles in there and there’s room for more if we organize it right,” he said. “Space is the biggest thing that’s nice for us in this new building.”
Weigel said students work on their own vehicles and learn how to do tasks such as changing oil, putting new spark plugs in or fixing a transmission leak among others.
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“We work on a little of everything,” he said. “We do the school’s lawn mower. We do the city’s lawn mower. We do snowblowers and all sorts of small engine stuff too. I always say to the students, ‘Some day you are going to own this in your own real world. You are going to have a lawn mower. I want you to know how to sharpen blades and change oil. You shouldn’t have to take it to another shop somewhere.’ So these are life skills they are learning out of the shop.”
He said students will work on vehicles for students, faculty or staff first. He said the shop doesn’t charge for labor but the vehicle parts need to be supplied.
“We’re really not out anything and they aren’t really out anything. Basically, they are just out parts,” Weigel said. “We have a lot of people that will give us a donation for working on their stuff or they will buy us tools.”
Young said the metal fabrication and welding space is much larger than what was previously provided. The space includes five welding booths and a computerized numerical control plasma cutter among other items.
“There’s just so much need in these industries for labor and we’re giving kids the chance to try it out now and see if it’s something they want to continue with either with higher education or apprenticeships,” Young said. “We want to give them the opportunity to actually try some of these things and see if they have an aptitude for this.”