Bob Guenther of Pacific Mountain Workforce awards Onalaska CTE teacher Kevin Hoffman with a $2,000 grant at Monday night's school board meeting.
The Onalaska School District has received two grants to further its career and technical education program, one that will provide field trips and another that will be used to purchase more equipment for the welding program.
Kevin Hoffman, career and technical education teacher at Onalaska, said the grants will help the program, which provides hands-on experience for its students.
At Monday night’s school board meeting, Pacific Mountain Workforce Development awarded a $2,000 grant. That money will be used to fund six field trips for woods and metals students. They include tours at Alta Forest Products and Hampton Lumber Mills, both in Morton, as well as a trip to a metal fabrication shop in Longview and another one to Lower Columbia College. It will also cover trips to the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery and the Skookumchuck Hatchery.
“I’m hoping that they will get out there in the field and see what the workforce is truly like,” Hoffman said. “… I want to get them out there, get their eyes open to the opportunities available, and give them hands-on experience.”
The field trips will also provide a networking opportunity for the students who hope to join the workforce as they meet hiring managers and supervisors.
“It’s almost like job networking, but it’s facilitated through a high school class,” Hoffman said.
There’s about 22 students in the woods class who range from beginner to advanced courses.
“It’s a huge part of what happens in the local community,” Hoffman said on why the CTE program is important. “There’s mills everywhere and there’s a huge amount of fish hatcheries locally down at the Cowlitz River, and also we are not far away from Longview, where there’s an almost endless supply of opportunities down there for ambitious students who want to become a metal worker for their career.”
This month the school district was also rewarded $8,000 from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction for its welding program. Hoffman said the class will purchase more welding equipment, and will also buy welding gas bottles, which they currently rent, to save money.
The new welders will bring the program to seven ARC welders and four MIG welders.
“It just allows a greater opportunity for students to practice,” Hoffman said. “They no longer will have to wait in line to use the equipment.”
The metals classes have 26 students.
According to Hoffman, some of the students will be ready to enter into the work trades right after college if they want to, while those interested in working at a fish hatchery would need to seek out more education.
“It’s giving them a very unique experience for a high school,” he said. “We’re just trying to push the students as hard as we can to build the skills that they can sell.”
In order to receive the grants, Hoffman said, students and english teacher Kelsey Otto worked as a team to put the grant applications together, while he facilitated the ideas.
The school is aggressive about pursuing grant funding to help its programs.
