Jay students are helping the town

Jay High School's new construction academy students are building 14 tables, eight for the town of Jay's Bray-Hendricks Park to replace the ones that were there for many years and six for Opies Cafe on Commerce Street in Jay.

Class instructor Steve Locklin said the town approached him about building them and the ideas took off from there. He said the projects will hopefully bring the community and the construction academy together, which is the ultimate goal.

"When Eric Seib with the town of Jay called and asked us about building the tables to replace the ones in the park, it was a new project for us, and we considered it would really help them out," said Locklin. "The students have really had an interest in where these are going and some wanted to sign their names underneath them. That's taking ownership of something you have had a part in creating."

There are seven girls taking Locklin's construction class and Locklin said the girls are actually the most creative. One student films herself wood burning on a time-lapse camera so her art work can be seen from start to finish in a sitting, he said, something she began doing after they did wood burning in class.

Locklin said there are a few projects for the school on order at present, such as ramps for the shed out at the track, jump boxes for the football team, benches for the basketball team.

"We're staying busy with that," said Locklin. "The time spent in the classroom and in the actual shop building is about 60/40 of the total class time."

He said in the past, some of the students participated in a wood-burning project, and really seemed to enjoy it so much that several received a personal wood burning kit for Christmas.

Students from freshman to senior participate in the class, and the picnic tables are about a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10 of difficulty.

"They would like for us to be able to understand basic house framing," said Locklin. "There are some state certifications that these guys are trying to get that are nationally recognized. If they go for a job interview, they can say, 'hey I'm certified to be able to do this portion of the plans'. There are some credentials tied to it. I think that's the way the country is going. I'm glad to see these types of academies for hands-on things coming back."

Locklin said the students use common tools but are required to go through his rigorous safety class before they even lift a hammer. He said they use a hammer and nail before using power tools so students can start at the very beginning, getting a feel for construction on a primal level and working their way up to using power tools and later pneumatic tools. The end result is a product that comes with purposeful and regimented planning and execution.

"They read a set of plans and work as a team to turn out a viable product," said Locklin. "The importance of technical training and education involves realizing that at the end of the day, with hard work and consistency, these guys will have a picnic table they can sit on, a viable product that is the result of the day's work."

"Mostly on the weekend, I help my dad build stuff, like counters, and cabinets. He's always working on projects, and knows how to work with a lot of stuff," said junior Dylan Ingram. "We're building a house for my grandparents. We're putting up sheetrock now."

Ingram said he would consider construction as a career possibly, citing that his father is so knowledgeable and he sees his father's ability to fix just about anything.

Locklin said that the class is taking orders for anyone who wants to order a table, but he has to monitor the orders to make sure his class can handle them and not get overwhelmed.

"We are open to future projects and are taking limited orders from our students' parents or anyone else interested in having one of our tables, but we have to be realistic," said Locklin.