Businesses partner with Arlington school to help kids gain sought-after skills

Published 11:06 pm Monday, April 28, 2008

ARLINGTON — Brett Sarver remembers the day his boss took him for a ride in her Jeep Grand Cherokee through the sprawling industrial areas around Arlington.

It was the fall of 2005 and Superintendent Linda Byrnes gave the accounting teacher and new head of the Arlington School District’s career and technical education marching orders: Find out what’s going on behind those closed doors where sparks fly and machines whir.

Sarver made calls and the circuit of local companies. Sometimes, he would bring along math, science and technology teachers as well as a counselor.

What he found was a vibrant manufacturing sector hungry for high school graduates trained in precision machining. The companies also were willing to open their wallets to help.

In the past two years, more than a dozen businesses, mostly from Arlington, have donated more than $60,000 so Arlington High School could get and set up a Computer Numerical Control mill and software. The equipment lets students follow their 3-D computer-aided designs and cut them into steel and aluminum objects.

The companies have made engineers available to train teachers and have given $10,000 worth of mill equipment and metal supplies.

Companies have stepped up to help from the day roughly three years ago when Sarver met John Middleton, a former co-owner of Absolute Manufacturing Inc., at an Arlington Rotary meeting.

“The doors just flung open,” Sarver said. “If anything, it was almost scary how open they were to getting this going.”

Middleton started Absolute Manufacturing as its lone employee in 1996. The company grew to more than 100 employees by the time it was sold last year.

It only made sense for the school and the businesses to help one another, Middleton said.

“Manufacturing businesses, not just in Arlington, are desperate for trained machinists,” he said. “It’s a good thing for the kids and it’s good for business.”

The new machinery allowed Arlington High School to give students who had been taking computer-aided drafting classes a way to apply their knowledge in a new hands-on manufacturing and engineering course.

“Kids could draw the plan, but they didn’t understand the transition from the designing to the actual CNC machine that cut it out,” Sarver said. “They wanted to make sure the kids understood the full connection.”

Students in Scott Striegel’s manufacturing and engineering class also make the connection between learning the technology and getting a high-paying job someday.

“There are a lot of job opportunities for someone who can do that kind of work,” said Sheldon Severson, a sophomore who is learning to use the new technology.

Fellow sophomore Austin Bruce has a father who works at Boeing and is interested in engineering. A knowledge of manufacturing would only help him become a better engineer, he said.

“It’s a really good feeling to be able to touch something you (design) from of your head,” he said.

“It’s just a real useful class,” said Ryan Doyals, a junior.

Enrollment in manufacturing and engineering courses is expected to nearly double from 30 students this year to 55 next year.

All of which makes Sarver smile.

“I was amazed,” he said. “The community has been so generous.”

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.