I always started a countdown 12 days before it officially ended.
It was a lot like being on death row for a teacher.
I always sat with my wife, who has worked for the Attleboro School System for 24 years.
It was a happy/sad day.
The seniors roughed in all the DWV waste and water piping in the mock-up’s basement.
(Nice Job!)
The space hadn’t functioned as a vocational shop in many years.
At one time, it was a machine shop and later a robotics shop.
They promised it would be cleaned out before the start of the school year.
In between, I had a homeroom full of seniors.
I was designated a .5, which meant I received half a paycheck for 17 hours of work.
A lot of the full-time vocational teachers flew the coop by 2:30.
But, it seemed no one but me was in a hurry to get it started.
“And I reminded her that state grants made building the shop both doable and affordable.
The former CTE Director had pushed hard for the addition of a plumbing program.
At the time, Attleboro was sending eight students to Tri-County for plumbing.
After Mike formally introduced himself, he asked me what my plans were for the plumbing shop.
To save time and money, Tony proposed that we balloon frame it.
The total dimension of the mock-up was roughly 70' long by 14' high by 14' wide.
Here are two apartments.
The 2” x 6" stack walls went up first, and then the floor joists were added.
The extension of the ledgers were for the 4' catwalk.
We decided we’d build on Thursday nights from 4:30 to 9:30.
Tim and I didn’t leave until after 11:00 most nights.
That winter, we got bombarded with over 100" of snow, and the snow days piled up.
Despite staging the lumber, a lot of it twisted.
The blocking helped straighten out the floor joists.
Tim and I put up all the plywood after school.
The last one was a training center for installing tub and shower valves, 16 of them!
I left Attleboro High School for Barstool Sports in 2019 before it happened.
Here’s one of 9 mock-up apartments the seniors finished.
Each contained a fully functional three-piece bathroom on the second level.
I saw Chad’s name inProgress Magazine(PHCC), and Jon texted me his good news.
I could not have been any prouder of these outstanding young men.
