The sound of power tools fills the air inside Perry-Mansfield’s Conrad Hall as Steamboat Springs High School sophomore Kenny Orce works to frame a wall as part of a pilot carpentry class.

The class being offered to local students comes from a partnership between Colorado Mountain College, Steamboat Springs High School and the Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp. It gives high school students who are concurrently enrolled at the college a chance to earn certification from the National Center for Construction Education and Research while building up college credits as part of the Career and Technical Education carpentry core class.

“When I saw construction on the class list, I had to see what it was all about,” Orce said as a flurry of work continued around him. “I’ve never really had an opportunity to experience stuff like this, so I just thought it would be cool to learn these skills and it would be a break from the basic math and science classes I normally have.”

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What it is all about

Jim Jones, program director for the Colorado Mountain College’s skill and trade programs based out of Eagle/Vail Valley campus, said the program came to Steamboat Springs with the help of the local college leadership.

He also gave credit to John Lawrence, dean of the School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, for helping set the program up. Kevin Williams, associate dean of academic affairs for the Steamboat Springs campus, also played a role.

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“A couple of years ago, Colorado Mountain College received accreditation from the National Center for Construction Education and Research,” Jones said. “They provide a nationally recognized curriculum … and because Colorado Mountain College is partnering with that organization, the students can be accredited.”

The program also offers students who are concurrently enrolled credit toward high school graduation as well as college credit.

In addition to the local partnerships, the program is supported by the Milwaukee tools company, which provided the handheld, battery-powered tools in a way that helped the college stretch grant dollars. Also, Alpine Lumber is supplying materials at a reduced cost for the college’s programs.

“Alpine Lumber has been instrumental in providing us materials at a price that we can afford,” Jones said. “Because we’re not-for-profit and it’s education, they were very understanding.”

Steamboat Springs is one of five locations across the state where Jones has implemented this educational model. There are also programs in Rifle, Edwards, Leadville and Salida.

Jones said Colorado Mountain College is putting a tremendous amount of effort to bring back skilled crafts and trade programs, and the college has developed multiple courses that will provide essential certificates of completion from the college, as well as giving students a pathway to get national credentials.

The college also offers an associate degree in applied sciences and multi occupational trades to students in classes that include automotive, carpentry, welding and HVAC, as well as chairlift mechanical maintenance, ski area operations and avalanche science programs. Most of the programs are offered at different locations that can accommodate the program. However, all the courses offer credits that can be applied to the associate degree in applied sciences and multi occupational trades.

What is happening in Steamboat

This semester nine students in Steamboat Springs are taking the concurrent course and the first step toward earning an associate degree.

“We had a meeting with (SSHS Principal Jay Hamric) over a year ago,” Williams said. “For a long time, people in the valley have been saying that there’s just a lack of CTE programming and trades. Throughout CMC and throughout our whole district, they’ve been reinventing the curriculum to base it around these national standards that include certifications at every course level.”

This semester in Steamboat Springs the college offered an entry-level fundamental course called “Core” that introduced high school students to a variety of trades. The idea is that this group of students will go on to take the more advanced carpentry classes that will be offered next year.

Eventually, the college would also like to offer adult classes as well.

Austin Prost is a junior who’s taking the Core class this year and thinking about taking at least one semester next year.

“I thought it would be a good idea to get some background in construction because I want to be an engineer,” he said. “The class is a lot of hands-on work, and I really believe getting construction experience will help me out. It is also a good fallback career to have in your back pocket.”

His classmate, Ben Custer, is a sophomore who has been around ranching his entire life.

“I have family that lives on ranches, and I understand that if something breaks there, you have to fix it — that was one aspect for taking this class,” Custer said. “I also think this could lead to a backup career … if I don’t get the job that I want or things don’t work out as expected. I’ll always have a trade because of this class.”

This semester the class is based at Perry-Mansfield using Conrad Hall, which served as a set shop a few years back and more recently as a dance studio. The space was recently turned back into a shop and is providing the space needed for instructors Paul Scoppa and Kyle Seyedian to lead the class.

“They’re starting to get the feel for it,” said Scoppa, who taught wood shop and construction at the Steamboat Springs and Hayden high schools for 11 years before coming out of retirement to take a position as an adjunct professor for the college.

“(The students) are still at a 101 level, but they are learning how to use the speed guns, they are learning how to cut correctly and we’ve got all these walls going, so there is a lot of repetition,” Scoppa continued. “The more repetition the higher the comfort level. It’s super important for kids in high school to find something that they are good at — not everybody’s on a college pathway — and even if you are on a college path, you can still come out of this as a builder. It is a great introduction to building. It’s important that these students understand they can do this.”

Seyedian has been at Steamboat Springs High School for three years teaching math and shop.

“You see them gain so much confidence,” Seyedian said. “The students go from being timid around the tools to measuring things out, cutting things and just getting the drive to figure out how to fix things themselves and how to get through the problems.”

The program has produced a couple of projects this semester. Hanging proudly on the wall of the shop are the skis the students built for the Steamboat Winter Carnival’s first-ever giant ski race in February. The students are currently building two sheds that will be sold at the end of the semester to raise money for future projects.

“These sheds will meet all the student-learning outcomes,” Jones said. “This is about life skills and being able to manipulate equipment and tools to be basically self-sustaining as an individual through life, so that’s exactly what’s going on.”

Steamboat currently offers the concurrent Core program with plans to expand into Carpentry 1 and Carpentry 2 next year. Jones is also hoping to offer a welding class in the future.

It’s exactly what we thought

Colorado Mountain College has 11 campuses across the state with different career and technical education programs being offered at five different locations.

Joe Haines, executive director with Perry-Mansfield, is excited to have one of the programs at Perry-Mansfield and looks forward to where it is going in the future.

“We started having discussions with CMC about a variety of topics and partnership opportunities. During those discussions, it came up that they were looking for a space for their CTE program and were looking to expand it,” Haines said. “You don’t necessarily think that a performing arts camp would fit a CTE program, but really the idea of the ladies who founded this camp 110 years ago was being out in nature and inspired by nature to do a variety of things, not just dance or theater. This is how we can be a part of the community and fill a community need in other areas of education.”

Hamric also sees value in the program and the partnership that has formed to make it happen.

“At Steamboat Springs High School, we’re trying to expand and build on our current career and technical education programs to offer kids different opportunities for careers and for degrees,” Hamric said. “This program will help students in their life by allowing them to pursue their dreams, their passions and interests.”

He said career and technical education programs are important at the school, and the construction trades are in high demand in Steamboat Springs and across Northwest Colorado.

“We understand there’s always labor shortages and needs for these professionals. Matching the students’ interests with our community’s needs is important, and we have a great partnership with Colorado Mountain College, and they’ve been supporting our construction program. … When they approached us with this unique idea, it was win-win-win situation,” Hamric said. “That’s what this spring is all about — just giving it a try to see what it feels like, see if all the logistics work out and if that’s a good fit — so far it is exactly what we thought.”