Construction: Broken Down by Tyler Ferreira Alves Hill
Melbourne High School, like many other high schools, offers a plethora of both required courses to graduate and engaging extracurricular and CTE classes. Unfortunately, not all of these classes have remained, such as Construction. Construction was one of the multiple CTE courses that were offered on Melbourne High School’s campus but has unfortunately been defunct. Luckily, thanks to our guidance counselors, admins, and our very own principal, students like 11th grade Matthew Marcano have found ways to continue their High School journeys unimpeded.
Hosted previously in Building 9 and having an entire unique room dedicated to it, Construction was one of the courses that the building wore with stride. Construction, as one may expect, focused on the building of various things. “Mr. Zimmerman was the new teacher. He tried to get us back on track by doing carpentry and then doing masonry. He was planning on doing masonry this January but he has quit.” said Marcano on the specificity of the class. Now with Mr. Zimmerman gone from his position, administration quickly came up with a new solution. “The reason that we stopped the construction class was that our instructor that we had for first semester took a new job, and we were not able to locate another instructor for second semester so we had to disband the class,” said Principal Dr. Kirk.
Luckily, those who did look forward to the class for their next semester, don’t have to fret. “So we’ll be advertising a vacancy for our construction teacher position. Probably later this spring, I hope to hire, either this spring, or early Summer. We plan to open up the entire program again into the Fall. For Students that are currently sitting in Construction 1 or Construction 2 class, they’ll be able to continue on that curriculum.” said Dr. Kirk.
As for where the students of this semester ended up? Dr. Kirk said, “We sat down each of those students in construction with their guidance counselor. In terms of where they went, it really depended on their schedule. For example, some of the seniors that maybe didn’t need that construction credit for graduation, we were able to give a free period off campus… The bottom line is we tried to find an elective course that continued moving them toward graduation and would be something they’re interested in taking.” As for Marcano himself, he has found a new class for his period. “I’m doing Personal finance with Mrs. Monique Reynolds. I transferred during the second semester at the start of it. It was an easy transition, as easy it would be for anyone.” said Marcano.
Though the class may not be available for the rest of this current school year, students can look forward to the next semester for Construction. Things like this have occurred on Mel High’s campus time and time again, but like always, us bulldogs have found ways to make compromises, overcame obstacles, and succeeded in the face of this sudden changes.
Caption: Sending Off for Construction: Matthew Marcano taking one last look at Construction, the previously active course in Building 9. Marcano was a student of both the previous Construction 1 course ran by Mr. Dyer, and the Construction 2 course ran by Mr. Zimmerman. “I hope for the next year, they can bring it back, but for me? I’m done. I got a certificate for apprenticeship, that’s all I need.” said Marcano. Photo by Tyler Ferreira Alves Hill.