Earlier today Governor Pete Ricketts toured the Skilled and Technical Science (STS) department here at Hastings High.
The occasion of the visit was to see the progress of a grant that was awarded to Hastings Public Schools to completely redo the STS department at the middle school.
After touring the middle school, Gov. Ricketts came to the high school to check out the STS department here.
STS teacher Matthew Hurt lead Gov. Ricketts’ tour and guided him through our STS department.
“This visit proves we’re doing something right. The governor wanted to see how we are doing, how successful we are, and he wanted to be able to talk about it around the state,” Hurt said.
Hurt thinks the visit was outstanding.
“He was able to interact with some students and to operate some machinery and run some parts. Multiple times he said he was very impressed with what we’re able to do throughout the four areas in our department,” Hurt said.
The four areas of our STS department here at HHS are the manufacturing lab lead by Hurt, the autos lab ran by Robert Schuster, the drafting room taught by Adam Skrdla and the woods room headed by Cornelio Trejo.
Funding for our STS department comes from various partnerships between the school, local industries like the Dutton-Lainson company, and Central Community College (CCC).
“The partnerships are very important, not only for the money put into our facilities, but also for the collaboration with our curriculum. Three of our four STS courses are dual credit through CCC,” Hurt said.
Gov. Ricketts tour started off with a demo of our computer numeric control (CNC) mills located in the manufacturing lab. Seniors Clayton Pavelka and Jerrylee Harris demonstrated their CNC skills to the governor.
“I was excited to show the governor what I’ve been learning throughout my four years in the manufacturing lab. I was a little bit nervous, but once he got here I found out he’s actually really cool. He’s a great guy and nice to talk to,” Harris said.
The next stop on Gov. Ricketts tour was the classroom for a short presentation on the history of the STS department at HHS. Hurt went over the big improvements to the machinery in the manufacturing lab. Before local industries started investing in the department, we had old lathes from the old ammunition depot outside of town.
After the presentation, Hurt escorted Gov. Ricketts to the autos lab. Gov. Ricketts met with a couple of the auto students and was informed more about the dual credit opportunities offered through CCC by Schuster.
Next, Gov. Ricketts went upstairs to the drafting and engineering room and met with Skrdla. Topics ranged from the 3D printer to the drone technology being worked on in class. Gov. Ricketts was presented with a 3D printed cube emblazoned with our school’s initials.
Lastly, Gov. Ricketts went outside to check out the building trades project for the year with Trejo.
Before leaving HHS, Gov. Ricketts was presented with a gift from the STS department. Hurt presented Gov. Ricketts with a pencil and business card holder designed and machined by Pavelka.
“A lot of work went into the gift. It took four or five hours to designing time and 15 hours of machining time,” Pavelka said.
After the tour was complete and Ricketts learned the ins and outs of the STS department he left and the students continued to work their hearts out towards something they’re passionate about.
