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| $102,000
goes to Kent schools - Largest gift to district
to aid woodworking program |
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| Kent/Ravenna Record-Courier -
December 9, 2008 |
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Article Written By: Dave O'Brien |
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Partnerships with international
corporations are continuing to pay dividends to Theodore
Roosevelt High School and the future employees of the
woodworking industry it is helping to train.
The most
recent benefit was a donation of woodworking computer
software from industrial partner the Microvellum
Corporation, that will teach students the design and
construction of cabinets.
The donation is worth $102,000, the largest single gift
of its kind ever received by the Kent School District,
Kent Schools Treasurer Debbie Krutz said. |
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The Microvellum Corporation is a partner in WoodLINKS
USA, a corporate and educational effort that gives
students the tools and training they need to enter the
woodworking industry. The software includes libraries of
both complete and partial designs available for download
by students. |
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Troy Spear, Roosevelt's woodworking teacher and the 2008
National WoodLINKS Teacher of the Year, said kitchen
cabinets can be designed several different ways. Some
designs use dowels, he said, and some " like the ones
produced at Roosevelt " uses dados, a piece-by-piece
form of construction.
"Through Microvellum, my students can go ahead and
program whichever construction type they can do" using
technology available in Roosevelt's wood shop, Spear
said. |
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The Microvellum software provides schematics for both
face frame construction and the frameless, or European,
style of cabinetry. It was most recently used to design
a pigeonhole cabinet for the Roosevelt choir program's
part folders.
Students first created a "nested diagram," a kind of
schematic showing how each part of the cabinet will be
cut from the wood stock. Students take the drawing,
upload it to the software, print out reports and make
the required cuts with the machinery available to them.
"We specify 'This is how I want to build this cabinet'
and you build it from the library or do parts and
pieces," Spear said. |
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Spear has worked to transform the wood shop into a
state-of-the-art, technology heavy program complete with
equipment donated by industry leaders such as Blum, Dux
and Leiden Cabinetry. The Microvellum-Roosevelt High
School collaboration is one of 57 such partnerships
nationwide, according to the company.
"This is Microvellum putting their money where their
mouth is," Spear said. "It goes back to the basis of
what WoodLinks is: Preparing the entry-level workforce
for the woodworking industry."
Roosevelt High School Principal Roger Sidoti credited
Spear and former director of career education Kathy
Thomas for reviving the fine woodworking program.
"We have more kids signed up for that particular program
than wood shop ever had," he told the Kent Board of
Education at its most recent meeting. |
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As seen in
Kent/Ravenna
Record-Courier |
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