The dust is finally settling on a $900,000 expansion at Shawano Community High School, giving agriculture and technical education classes a little more wiggle room.
The first big unveiling took place Wednesday night for parents of students enrolled in tech ed classes, and an open house and tours are scheduled for Oct. 29.
The 7,200 square feet of additional space will allow a larger variety of classes to flourish and provide more space for materials that previously clogged the halls.
In the agriculture wing, where 2,600 square feet were added, agriculture teacher Steve Stomberg is looking forward to providing adequate facilities for aquaculture, hydroponics, horticulture and other ag subfields.
“Our class sizes have always exceeded the classroom space. We have a storage space where we can put stuff so we can do more student things,” Stomberg said. “It is going to be so beneficial to student learning.”
Stomberg is hoping to transform the existing program into one where sustainable agriculture is the theme. He sees it as the wave of the future.
The expansion also includes a processing area for the food sciences, which is a growing section of agriculture, according to Stomberg. He said this will allow the agriculture program to provide hands-on education on how what is grown on a farm becomes what is available at grocery stores.
“We’re trying to get students to learn how to take that raw product and make something with it,” Stomberg said. “We’re not teaching them how to make the fancy cuisine meals, but how you take the grain and turn it into a pasta.”
There will also be a space for learning small animal science hands on.
Over in the tech ed department, there is more space and individual areas for small engine programs, wood shop classes and welding. With the remodel, the school was able to add three welding booths to the existing six.
With a total of 4,600 square feet available, 1,200 of it went to expanding the auto shop, allowing the space to house more vehicles. Projects can stay where they are, according to tech ed teacher Greg Brown, instead of being moved so other trades classes can use the space.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to bring in a couple of more cars for the automotive classes,” Brown said. “The small gas engines have their own space, so when students start a project, they finish in the same place.”
There is also a new classroom for the computerized numerical control machines the school received from an anonymous donor in the manufacturing industry. SCHS hopes to eventually form an arrangement with Northeast Wisconsin Technical College to have college classes utilize the equipment; a similar program is already forming at Bonduel High School.
When the high school was built in 1997, storage space was not part of the original plans. With the expansion, there is plenty of space to hold building materials and other equipment, eliminating the need for renting storage facilities off-campus.
The expansion provides wiggle room, but it also provides the ability to rearrange the rooms as needed whenever new trades come up in the future.
“We want this to be multipurpose so we can configure it to whatever we need to in the future,” Brown said.
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