After years of thinking about collaborating with Montevideo School, J&D Construction, Inc has recently found a path to a new partnership that benefits both the region and the company. Jamie Pauling, the owner of J&D Construction, said that he is strengthening the school with his wife and school board member Becky Pauling, the superintendent Wade McKittrick (Wade McKittrick). After talking about the initiatives of the technical courses, the cooperation between the two parties has yielded results. "In my daughter's swimming competition, I met Wade. We talked about the needs of the school and the possibility of helping J&D Construction, Inc. and I at the Ag Welding Shop. Neither of us knew what this would bring." Pauling said.
After some email communication with school staff and a conversation with Ag teacher Maquelah Schueler, in order to help determine the needs of the Ag welding shop, Pauling decided to set a start date and determine what to do as the project progressed contribute. "I have discussed with the partners of J&D Construction, I intend to use J&D resources in this work, we have set a budget and continue to move forward," Pauling said.
On November 1, Pauling joined J&D's welding shop supervisor Bennett Hagen and safety director Paul Carlson on the first day of their class with the students. "We focus on safety topics, introduce ourselves to students, and talk to students to learn about their welding experience," Pauling said. "Maquelah has limited experience in welding. I think we need to teach welding knowledge to students and her every day so that she can better teach welding knowledge in future courses." Since J&D employees regularly teach in their working environment , So the transformation of teaching in the classroom environment is not difficult. "Essentially, we have taken over the welding workshop and treated it as our workshop, making the necessary improvements to achieve a good working environment, while teaching students how to weld and use steel," he said.
Pauling calls this instruction "functional welding". The instructions are not as in-depth as those taught in technical schools, but are intended to introduce welding for home projects, or work in a welding workshop in the summer or after graduating from high school. "In the process, I have been writing down what I want to accomplish and teaching to students, and constantly designing projects for them to complete. Students now come in with the projects they want to build," Pauling said. Along the way, they also cleaned and deeply cleaned workshops, organized work areas, conducted welding tests to build skills, participated in safety courses, learned how to use cutting and grinding equipment, built several welding stations, and learned about wire feeding and rod welding. Basic knowledge. The students also learn how to fill out job applications, identify safety hazards and jointly establish a suitable welding workshop.
In order to make the course run normally, J&D Construction, Inc. donated welding machines, time and materials. They also worked with J&D suppliers to collect steel donations from West Central Steel in Willmar and Valley Manufacturing in Montevideo. In addition, Runnings offers a lot of tool discounts. "We will continue to work with others," Pauling said. "I have been working with the school administration to raise funds for improvements, tools and equipment."
Pauling said that the long-term goal is to set up a welding course that is mainly taught by Ag teachers but strengthened by local industry professionals. "As we determine the future development of the welding project, I hope to help the school develop a template for cooperation with other local companies," Pauling said. "I want to continue to help improve this and other technical skills courses. I also hope that the technical courses will be more inclusive of life skills. We hope to increase students' interest in this type of work by providing a satisfying educational experience."
As the local area is dominated by agriculture and manufacturing, Pauling said that these skills need to be taught in high school. "Our goal is to provide education while striving to meet the needs of our community. This partnership with ISD 129 will benefit our students and the community in the coming years," Pauling said. "This was a fun, exciting and challenging experience, and we at J&D Construction, Inc. are very happy to work with the ISD 129 Ag welding program."
Chris Weber, the principal of Montevideo High School, expressed his gratitude for this cooperation. He said: "We are very excited about the two-way cooperation with J&D Construction. Jamie, Bennett and Paul are very good to our students. We are very lucky to be with us. The community has companies like J&D willing to provide time and resources for our children. Donating welders and other materials to our Shop class is a major upgrade to our store and provides our students with more learning and growth Chance."