High school showcases CTE metalworking pilot and community business partnerships

At the Nov. 19 board meeting, high school CTE teacher Brooke (named in the transcript alternately as 'Brooke Reiser' and 'Brooke Fraser') described a pilot student-run business producing custom ribbon hangers. She said the class takes online orders, creates mockups for customer approval, programs designs on a Cut 2D Pro, paints and assembles products, and fulfills shipments from class time.

The program, Brooke said, currently uses materials already in school inventory so there is no upfront cost to students; the processing turnaround is about two weeks with about 30 minutes of direct fabrication time per item (plus dry time). Local business partners supply raw materials, donated equipment and on-site tours: Sky Meadows provides stainless stock and sheet materials; Donaldson's and OEM donate material coupons and old equipment and host tours; Saint Croix Electric donated electric wheels and other supplies.

Students Sam and Josh described working in the new welding shop and said having an on-site workspace made it possible to complete larger projects. The teacher noted liability and scope questions remain for some business-service ideas (particularly auto servicing) and said the program is piloting adult community-ed crash courses and other outreach.

Board members praised community partnerships and asked about marketing and timelines for a community-education rollout; administration said marketing currently uses district Facebook pages and the district web page is being updated to list student-made products.