At Willamette Carpenters Training Center
Trades charter school will open this fall
A new charter school in East Mult-
nomah County is partnering with ap-
prenticeship training programs to of-
fer classes focusing on construction
trades, engineering and architecture.
The Academy for Architecture,
Construction and Engineering (ACE)
will open its doors in September to
250 high school juniors. Enrollment
could double the following year when
both juniors and seniors will attend.
The academy will operate out of
the Willamette Carpenters Training
Center, 4222 NE 158th Ave., Portland.
ACE is the brainchild of the Ore-
gon Building Congress, an organiza-
tion that for years has brought to-
gether teachers, businesses, public
agencies and training programs to in-
crease the quality and diversity of ap-
plicants entering the building industry.
OBC has partnered with Reynolds,
Centennial, Parkrose and Gresham-
Barlow school districts, and five ap-
prenticeship training programs —
WCTC, the NECA-IBEW Electrical
Training Center, the HVAC & Metals
b h
m k
Institute of Sheet Metal Workers Lo-
cal 16, the Northwest Laborers-Em-
ployers Training Trust, and the open
shop Northwest College of Construc-
tion — to create the new school.
Reynolds School District is the ac-
tual sponsor of the charter. Charter
schools are independently run, but
publicly funded. ACE has its own
board of directors who formulate poli-
cies, curriculum and budgets. Among
the board members is Ken Fry, direc-
tor of the NECA-IBEW Electrical
Training Center.
John Steffens, director of the
Willamette Carpenters Training Cen-
ter (and vice president of OBC), and
Ric Olander, president of Sheet Metal
Workers Local 16, also serve on com-
mittees that will hire teachers and es-
tablish the curriculum at ACE.
Students will follow A Day/B Day
schedules, receiving core classes at
their home schools on on day, then at-
tending the academy the next. The
two-year program will offer gradua-
tion credits in math, science and Eng-
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lish, as well as opportunities to intern
and job shadow. All juniors will take
construction courses to learn the ba-
sics, As seniors, they can specialize in
architecture, engineering or one of the
trades.
“This is project-based
learning. Students won’t
be sitting around at a
table. They will be learn-
ing by doing,” Dick O’-
Connor, executive director
of OBC told the NW La-
bor Press.
Students will be organ-
ized into small “work
crews,” with four or five
crews creating a learning group. Two
learning groups will be anchored to a
certified teacher and a technical edu-
cation instructor.
O’Connor said 140 applicants have
applied for the six teaching posts.
ACE faculty will consist of a state
certified t eachers for math, science
and English, plus three instructors
with skills in either construction, ar-
chitecture or engineering.
“We should be able to hire some
fabulous teachers,” O’Connor said.
At an open house for students and
parents last month, Mike Taylor, a re-
tired superintendent from Parkrose
High School and the newly-hired
principal of ACE, said that in addition
to the teachers, students will have ac-
cess to the training centers.
“These are state-of-the-art facili-
ties with top-notch computer labs and
CAD labs,” Taylor said. “The HVAC
Institute has some of the best math art
on its walls that I’ve ever seen. It’s a
wonderful facility.”
“This is a resource I guarantee you
no other school can provide,” he said.
A trades charter school has been in
Q
the works for several years.
“We sat down with industry and
educators, shared our ideas and de-
sires, and found we could really help
each other by building this school,”
O’Connor said. “The collaboration on
The Willamette Carpenters Train-
ing Center has remodeled about 7,000
square feet of its second floor to ac-
commodate students this fall. It is al-
ready talking about adding six more
classrooms, a library, new restrooms
this has been phenomenal,”
Fry, a past president of OBC, said
that in 2006 the organization pre-
sented its plan to Portland Public
Schools, but was turned down ...
twice.
OBC then took its proposal to
school districts in East Multnomah
County, where poverty rates are high
and schools are busting at the seams.
“The reception there was quite differ-
ent,” Fry said.
Reynolds School District Superin-
tendent Terry Kneisler was eager to
listen, Fry said. Meetings were
arranged with administrators from
other school districts in the area, and
the result is the new charter school.
“My initial reaction was, ‘someone
pinch me, I can’t believe this is finally
happening,’ “ Steffens told the NW
Labor Press.
ACE is leasing space for three
years from the Willamette Carpenters
Training Center, which is located in
the Reynolds School District. If all
goes as planned and it performs to
state standards, ACE can apply for an-
other five-year grant.
and a meeting hall with a serving
kitchen that can seat up to 200 people.
Applications to ACE are available
at high school counseling offices.
Each school is guaranteed placing a
certain number of students based on
its enrollment. If schools don’t fill
their slots by March 15 they will be
redistributed. If there are more appli-
cants than space, students will be se-
lected by lottery. The only require-
ment is that applicants be a junior
with at least a 2.0 grade point average.
“This is not an experiment,” Taylor
said at the open house. “Everything
has been demonstrated to be an ac-
ceptable practice. We’ll do what we
do extremely well.”
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Editor’s Note: ACE Academy is
modeled after the Center for Ad-
vanced Learning, another charter
school in East Multnomah County.
CAL focuses on health care, manufac-
turing technology and engineering. It
is in the Gresham school district.
OBC’s Dick O’Connor said talks
are ongoing with the affiliated training
programs and the state apprenticeship
office as to whether ACE grads will
be allowed direct entry into training
programs.
“Our hope is to provide direct en-
try. But it’s not official yet,” said John
Steffens, director of the Willamette
Carpenters Training Center.
Ken Fry of the NECA-IBEW Elec-
trical Training Center and Ric Olander
of the HVAC & Metals Institute told
the NW Labor Press that graduates
may not get direct entry into their pro-
grams, but they’ll definitely have a leg
up on other applicants.
“Entry is being discussed,” Fry
said. “It depends on the trade and
what each training center wants to
do.”
Currently, graduates from Benson
High School in Portland and from the
Clark County Skills Center in Van-
couver, Wash., can apply to the Elec-
trical Training Center monthly, while
others can apply only during open en-
rollment, which takes place twice a
year.
PAGE 3