Sidney students continue to make progress, learn from Maple Street Project

Sidney High School students are receiving some valuable hands-on experience remodeling and improving a house on Maple Street.

Beau McConnell, Sidney High's construction teacher, along with the school's design teacher Kim Castner are leading students in this project. The students are gaining first-hand knowledge on the demolition and reconstruction of this family home.

The family of Kim and Ralph Castner donated the $28,000 home to the school for the project. Sidney High School Principal Christ Arent confirmed that he and McConnell had looked over the house before purchase and decided it would be a worthwhile project.

All of the money raised by this project will be reinvested in the students in the form of scholarships. The scholarships will be awarded to the 2015 graduating class. Some of the scholarships will be awarded to the students who have completed more than two semesters in the industrial arts field. Scholarships will also be offered to the general student body at Sidney.

"This is a combination of my construction class that consist of 10 young men and Kim Castner's design class which consist of 10 young women," McConnell said. "We've worked together to completely gut this house, remodel and redesign it. This summer we'll sell the house for profit. We'll then take that profit money and give scholarships out to Sidney high students."

Some local businesses, such as Day and Night Plumbing & Heating, have expressed interest to the school in teaching a lesson for the students on plumbing or heating and cooling in the house. The school has also had interest from realtors, who aim to teach a lesson about what sells a house.

Some students will use these skills learned in this project to utilize in trade school. All students will be able to use the moral skills such as work ethic and dedication to better their adult lives.

"This gets students ready for a trade," McConnell said. "It teaches them something they can use right out of high school if they wanted to go into any sort of career such as construction, plumbing and wiring. It also gives them an idea even as homeowners of the ins and outs of a house as well as home maintenance. If this doesn't teach them trade skills it will teach them life skills as home owners and adults. A lot of kids don't know what a wall looks like torn down, what goes into putting up a structure, window, or putting a door in. They're getting to see what that entails."

Along with setting up a scholarship for next year's seniors, each student who participated in the project this year has taken something away from the work.

"We're learning a lot," said senior Ryan Wooley, "like how to put in windows, applying drywall, learning what stucco is, a ton of framing stuff. It's a pretty good class. I've been learning a lot. I'm thinking about progressing the skills I've learned here when I go to school and then take up a career dealing with construction."

"I've learned a lot,:" said senior Michael Muggli. "I came in not really knowing anything. I've learned a lot about tools and different measurements and how everything works. I'm thinking about going into teaching and this has helped me a lot watching Mr. McConnell. We're learning how to work as a team and instructing others while making sure everybody's on the same track."

This project gives back to the community and its youth while educating them on aspects of life many teens do not have the luxury of learning about.

This will be an annual project. McConnell and school officials are weighing the options of remodeling a house or building one from the ground up.

"What we're trying to do is just take homes like these that are a little run down and remodel them and better the neighborhood," McConnell said. "Obviously, you know the houses around this house are nice homes. We're just trying to make this a nice home that somebody will be able to move in and live in. We've had a lot of people, businesses, and companies interested donate to the project. All the way around it's good for the school the community and the final outcome is kids get scholarships and go on into trade schools colleges and whatever they want to do."