By Jada Lister

This semester,math teacher Jane Johnson has partnered with Paraprofessional Chad Meyers from CCI Construction to create a construction-based math class.

The hope is that the partnership will provide students  better opportunities for post high school life.The construction class doesn’t officially begin until fall 2016. Recently however, Ms. Johnson has held a pre-buliding day in order to generate interest. Students at the prebuilding day built picnic tables which will be donated to various elementary schools in the Wheat Ridge area. The students and their art teachers will decorate the tables as they see fit.

The tables will be displayed in front of the circus tent at the Carnation Festival this summer. They will be sold in a silent auction with the proceeds going to each elementary school’s art department.  The project is a collaboration between the city of Wheat Ridge, Wheat Ridge Education Alliance, elementary schools in the Wheat Ridge area, Colorado Construction Institute, and Jordan’s Lumber on Ward Road, which donated the wood .

Next year, Johnson’s plan is to have students learning the math behind construction before transitioning into 100 percent building by second semester. During the first semester, the students may also create some smaller projects.

Second semester students will possibly create more picnic tables or other larger projects that could benefit WRHS. Johnson would like to see what Principal Griff Wirth thinks is needed and what the kids can come up with for projects .

So far, 32 students, all soon-to-be seniors with a desire to have a career in construction, have signed up for the class. The hope is that by the end of next year, all of the students will either  have certifications to get a job in construction or be able to go to college to get a degree in the field.

In the meantime, look for the students’ picnic tables at the Carnation Festival in August.