CAREER & TECHNICAL EDUCATION
CONSTRUCTION-RELATED JOBS:
‘EVERYTHING YOU WANT OUT OF A CITIZEN’ By Bob Fitch Building trades classes at Harrisburg High School are not just about pounding nails. Instead, classes address a multifaceted set of community needs including economic development, filling construction industry job positions and, most importantly, providing students a hands-on look at viable and lucrative career options. Several years ago, information gathered from students, local businesses, the Chamber of Commerce and the Department of Labor pointed to a gap in the district’s curriculum. “One of the main things that came up was the construction field in general,” said Dr. Michael Amolins, director of instruction and federal programs The Career & Technical Education Department at Harrisburg High School has been enhanced with at Harrisburg High School. the addition of a building trades class. Photo by Jon Klemme. “Obviously there’s a lot of growth charitable arm, the Sioux Empire Home Builders and building going on in our district – and we didn’t have a Care Foundation. related program for our kids.” Before the 2019-2020 school year, HHS had only one class which covered the foundations The Care Foundation to that point had been focused of construction-related skills, said Ryan Rollinger, principal at on scholarships and donations of tools for schools. The Harrisburg High School. group experimented with an after-school skills class for Rollinger, Amolins and others traveled to school districts with existing building trades programs to look at their facilities and discuss their curriculum. Yankton High School, in particular, had facilities which Harrisburg used as a model. Amolins said, “The philosophy in our Career & Technical Education Department has been to start the conversation with community partners, asking what their needs are, such as: ‘As a business, when you hire an employee, what are you missing? What skills can we teach our kids in the classroom so that they’re better prepared for an internship or their first job?’ That approach has been effective to help ensure that when a young person joins a firm, they can make a contribution to the company.” Community partner number one was the Home Builders Association of the Sioux Empire and, more specifically, HBA’s 18
elementary and middle school students. According to Chase Patten, president of the Home Builders Care Foundation and operations manager at Builders Millwork and Window, “We found the interest was there, for sure. For sixth grade kids, the after-school program was great. But, by the time kids got to seventh and eighth grade, there was a conflict with other extracurriculars, which reduced participation because kids were forced to choose between our program and sports.”
Patten said partnership discussions with the Harrisburg School District meshed well with the Care Foundation’s goal to create greater interest in construction-related careers among students in the greater Sioux Falls area. Community partner number two was the South Dakota Department of Education. The department’s Workforce Education Program strives to enhance infrastructure to CONNECTING THE HARRISBURG COMMUNITY
