Wednesday, April 19, 2000

Learning project brings new building

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Students to construct administrative center

BY Phillip Pina
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        LEBANON — This class project will be scrutinized long after graduation.

Masonry instructor Rodney Thompson watches Steve Beck unpack bricks. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

        Construction-trade students at the Warren County Career Center are building the school's new administrative building. It's part of a nearly year-long project meant to give the students hands-on training and school bosses new offices.

        “There is nothing like on-the-job experience,” said Rodney Thompson, a masonry instructor at the school. There is such a demand for construction workers these days that most will find work after graduation, he said.

        With the help of instructors and the guidance of local builders, students at the career center's carpentry classes have framed, roofed and dry-walled the structure. Electrical students have wired the building. And masonry students are doing the brickwork.

        One of those students is Steve Back. The 18-year-old from Franklin hopes to get a job upon graduation with a contractor. Working outdoors is what he has always wanted to do.

        “It beats sitting inside all day,” he said.

        On Wednesday, he spent the day laying brick around the exterior of the building. Inside, fellow students were putting a final coat of paint in an entryway while other worked on hanging a ceiling.

        The building will house the superintendent's office, as well as the offices of the school treasurer. It will also feature a state-of-the-art boardroom with recessed lighting, large windows and video screens. That room will serve as a meeting place for the board and other school committees, said Peg Allen, Warren County Career Center spokeswoman.

        The building, adjacent to other Career Center buildings, is to be open by the end of the school year. Students are graded on their effort and work as the year progresses, Mr. Thompson said.

        Many of the students have passed up employment opportunities to stay and finish the building, Ms. Allen said. Many of the seniors on the project had even qualified for early job placement but stayed on.

        “The building will be an example of what students are capable of when they have encouragement and what hands-on learning can accomplish,” Ms. Allen said.

       

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