Press Release – April 22, 2011

From High School to a job

SEDCOR Construction Alliance Works with Dallas High School to Identify Career Paths
by Jolene Guzman – The Itemizer-Observer

DALLAS — Not all high school graduates are going to go to a four-year college. But that doesn’t mean that those graduates can’t find meaningful, living wage jobs out of high school.

A partnership between the Dallas School District and the Strategic Economic Development Corporation’s (SEDCOR) Construction Alliance aims to illuminate career opportunities requiring little post-high school training.

Once a week since mid-March, alliance members — local contractors and construction professionals — have led students in Tim Ray’s advanced wood shop class through projects to help improve their shop facilities and the facades of two downtown Dallas buildings.

Both projects will be hands-on, with student ideas and work incorporated into the finished product.

“They are teaching them real-world skills,” said Nick Harville, SEDCOR’s business retention and expansion manager.

Harville said the alliance has a similar partnership with Marion County school districts. After successfully including DHS students in the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” remodeling project at the Oregon School for the Deaf in September, SEDCOR decided to begin a partnership in Dallas.

“It’s a good experience for the kids to talk to these guys,” Harville said. “A lot of them are company owners.”

On Wednesday, April 8, the class made an off-site visit to Southtown Glass on Main Street in downtown Dallas, where class members have been given the opportunity to design a facade remodel for the Southtown-House of Floors building.

Southtown Glass owner Carl Harbaugh, who owns the building, told the class that he never graduated from college, but is still able to run a successful business and make a positive impact on the communities he does business in.

Harbaugh said he wants to further that goal with the facade project, hoping to restore the building front to something closer to the original architect’s design.

Improving the look of downtown may help make it more vital, he said.

Back in the shop on Friday, the students split off into groups to begin work on their designs. Ray encouraged senior Tanner Yarbrough and junior Ethan Noll to open their imagination on the Southtown facade design.

“Don’t limit yourselves,” Ray said. “Do what you think looks cool.”

Neither Yarbrough nor Noll had experience in building design, but both said they liked the community-centered goal.

“It seems like a great idea,” Yarbrough said. “It could bring back downtown business — the curb appeal.”

Freshman David Morlan and his partners, junior Kyle Ray and freshman Daniel Medellin, seemed excited about the opportunity to be involved in restoring some of Dallas’ historical charm.

“A lot of buildings looked really cool then,” Morlan said.

“It’s our chance to have our ideas into the remodel,” Ray added.

The second class project will involve remodeling the school’s small engine shop to make it a more functional, better learning environment.

“The more professional the setting, the higher the standards they set for themselves,” Tim Ray said.

Ray said the students who finish the course will earn a SEDCOR certificate, letting local contractors know they have a set of skills that can be used on the job or further developed through on-the-job training.

“We are trying to expose them to as many aspects of construction as we can,” Harville said.

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