Art & Inspiration Tech School Students Doing Good

I’m not looking foward to a retirement. I fell like I’m semi-retired now. Easiest physical job I’ve had. The mental part is more though.
The place does have a 3rd floor mechanical area. Me and a couple shop instructors told em were gonna have us a club house up there.

 

Once this all settles down we gotta have a car show open house thingy

 

Finished 2nd place in collision at state compe***ion
Student had a perfect score in the welding portion.

New school opening is being pushed to September.
We met with Challenger Lifts and Hunter today to locate equipment placement
Paint booth is scheduled for a mid June install.
Small equipment and tools are about to get handled. Still crossing fingers on the metal shaping stuff.
I have been asked to host update training in our area for professionals. So far I have a green light.
Automotive shop

Collision

Collision outdoor area looking good

 

The kids at the school where you are an instructor, are very fortunate to have you as an instructor!
But more than that, those kids and you are lucky enough that the local school board and other powers that be, are open minded enough and have enough foresight, to invest in the new building and keep expanding your program!
So many schools around the nation got rid of such programs like auto shop, wood-shop, metal shop etc!
Kudos to you for being a great positive element for your students,

 

Got clarification on the heating and cooling today.
So the shops are heated and have fresh air capabilities.
Each shop area can control or shutoff the heating or fresh air when the doors are up.
cl***rooms and offices have heat/AC
The transportation and welding shops have exhaust/fume extraction
All have plumbed eye wash and emergency shower set ups.
filtered water dispensers for bottled water refills throughout the building.

 

We had a group of private residents that put this together. A local foundation working with local donors. The school is named for the family of the largest investor. Drummond Coal
Alabama Power has also invested heavily.
There have been funds from the state and even some from the city.
I keep hearing that the dollar figure should be close to a 90 million dollar investment.
The vast majority of the $$$ is not from our school system. No bonds that I know of or other normal ways schools are funded.
So the bulk of this school is from private funding.
Instructors have worked with the design and equipping of the school. Our design instructor has hundreds of hours involved in this project. The engineers contact us regularly thru emails and texts. Ive been there twice in the past week to help with the layout and equipment.
The project manager has fought to keep instructor involvement a priority.
The awning in front and back of the school was developed at the request and input by instructors.

 

I am glad that you clarified the details and facts about the funding of the program and facilities.

When I saw the pictures of the vast amount of square footage and other elements, I thought to myself, is it possible that there is a school board this open minded and this well funded to achieve this?
Again, it’s so very cool to see that people with deep pockets actually give a dam about kids having such a facility, as what has been constructed!
Most impressive!

 

These companies are taking matters into their own hands, and I applaud them for it. It's really a matter of survival for them, if you're in a business that needs young employees like the kids that this facility will be producing, the current labor pool is downright pathetic.

The sad part of this story is that for the money we spend (waste might be a better word) on public education in this country, facilities like this should be everywhere.

 

Nice!

 

hey -cool,you went to disneyland!

 

Man, I want to go back to school and take Anthony's courses but alas I'm too old! HRP

 

Our director got a grant for additional help. So I have an ***istant now. Retired shop owner/technicisn.
Guy is fired up.
The grant is for a year with hopes to renew.
We’ve discussed starting a cars and coffee once we get settled down.

 

Automotive shop progress

Main entrance

 

Never seen lights like that, what are they?

 

Some kind of LED.
They are very bright and not very big
Think they’re called ufo lights

 

That's a palace!! Cool!

 

Possibly.
It will head home soon. I got distracted again
That 66 c10. Want to drive the c10 to Nashville in September. It’s running but I got to do brakes and drop it .
And I got another short bus

 

As of now, I was told around 80% of the school is non-public money.

 

Maybe some $$ for a new school bus?
https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...etch\":false,\"request_fetch_reason\":null}"}

 

Got one
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/shortest-short-bus-ever-it’s-got-to-be-close.1349763/

 

Or maybe something like this that @Marcia has?

 

Cl***room taking shape

booth fresh air hood system getting plumbed

8 hookups inside. 4 outside

meanwhile in the mechanic side

 

Another round of equipment meetings today.
Was told an invoice for around 140k worth of frame equipment has been approved.
drive on bench with electronic measuring, truck clamps, pinch weld clamps and pulling accessories.
Should have that much in welding, aluminum and steel repair, plastic repair, PDR amd self piercing rivet tools.
3 master hand tool boxes with foam tool holders.
Working on sorting out the rest of the small stuff.
So far we got the green light on the stomp shear and finger brake. Still crossing fingers on the “wish list” fab equipment.
If it’s a no go I’ve got a back up plan.
We’re over 600k worth of tools and equipment at this point.
Have plenty of 110 plugs along the wall plus several on reels. The bulk of the air hoses are on reels as the engineer doesn’t want anything that moves or can be tugged on mounted to a wall.
We did a walk thru today and reminded the engineer we need a 3 phase service.
They haven’t pulled the 220 yet. Should have a couple of those.

 

Pretty amazing place, but the cl***room has no windows?

 

So students can’t escape. It’s a big problem around here.

 

Has a huge window

With a beautiful view of the shop.
And my office

 

Is the "Better Engeeering" thing part of the spray booth a fresh air make up system Anthony ?? We need a better system for the college where I teach

 

That’s a high tech parts washer in the mechanic shop.
The both is being set up with SATA fresh air hoods. A positive pressure hood with filtered air and filtered spraying air