BARTLESVILLES, Okla. (OBV) – A new construction class at Bartlesville High School is building Oklahoma’s future workforce by giving students the skills they will need to launch their career.
The high school’s Construction Technology course began this school year, perhaps an echo of a course from yesteryear that helped build the community.
“Rumor has it that it was offered in our school system over 30 years ago,” said Douglas Boudreaux, the instructor of the course. “I have not verified this, but a reliable neighbor tells me that one of the houses in my neighborhood, as well as others throughout the city, were built by high school students as part of their construction class.”
The new course sets out to build upon the tradition of growing communities by teaching young people the skills they will need to not only engineer future success, but also the skills that are needed to fill essential jobs within Oklahoma’s construction industry.
“This class is preparing me for the future because construction will always be needed and not many people know how it’s done or are interested in it,” said Erynn Beck, a Bartlesville High School senior who is part of the Construction Tech course. “I like to be independent but can also be a team player, so being in the Construction Tech class is helping me in every way, and I’m glad I get to be a part of such an amazing program.”
The Construction Tech course was created after school administrators saw demand within the workforce and among students, according to Principal Michael Harp.
“We, like many people in our area, keep an eye on workforce needs and have a great relationship with our area’s technology school, Tri County Tech. But, just like other tech schools in the state, they can only take so many students, and we have more students interested in going into their programs than they can help,” Harp said.
Bartlesville Public Schools’ administration is part of a nationwide workforce cohort. Administrators visited a construction class in Iowa in Spring 2023. The Iowa students use the skills they acquire in the construction class to build a house, which is then sold by that school district.
“That sparked the idea that we too needed to offer a construction class with the basics of those trades, and that we could serve more students on top of what our technology center is able to do,” Harp said.
Bartlesville school administrators created the construction course with a long-term goal similar to that of the class in Iowa.
“We’re not going to build a house this year, but there definitely is a strategic vision down the road to do that,” Harp said.
Course instructor Boudreaux is a professional engineer with 20 years of experience in engineering and design. He was the director of engineering for a consulting firm in Bartlesville which provided services to dozens of operating facilities in Oklahoma and neighboring states. He worked as a math and science teacher prior to his time at the consulting firm and is now back in the classroom, now introducing students to the world of construction.
The skills they are learning will benefit them as future professionals.
“The students are learning typical lessons such as the history of construction and the introduction to hand and power tools, but they are also learning intangible skills like adaptability, learning and maintaining a pleasant and professional attitude, time management and attention to detail,” Boudreaux said.
Twelfth-grader Jose Vasquez said Boudreaux is teaching him the essentials he will need to get a good job and support his family.
“My favorite part of construction class has to be working for Mr. B. He is a very understanding and intelligent leader of the classroom,” Vasquez said. “I have learned to tell the basics of measuring tape and the protection necessary for everyday life in the construction field.”
Ninety students are enrolled in the course, which is broken up into multiple classes with 15 students per class, according to Harp.
Vasquez said he has learned how to add and subtract measurements and how to take time to think about what he’s doing while working with a power saw. His career goal is to become an electrician. He also plans to enlist in the Marine Corps.
Ninth-grader Nicolas Villanueva said he hopes to have a career in construction.
“This class has been able to teach me to use equipment properly, which I love about this class,” Villanueva said. “I believe it is helping me to be capable of smaller scale construction such as home projects to even a ‘head start’ into something such as trade school.”
Villanueva said he has been interested in construction for a while.
“However, this class has accelerated my interest within this field,” he said.
Bartlesville has a variety of vocational education options for students, including an agricultural program that is in its sixth year, an aviation program that is in its third year, a school-to-work program and a robust internship program that has around 70 students working as interns in a wide range of professional sectors.
The construction class is also also referred to as Construction 1. Bartlesville’s Construction Tech program will offer more advanced courses in the coming years, teaching students the numerous skills needed to build a house.
“Our goal next year is to have Construction 2, and we are modeling it off of our aviation course that has really taken off,” Harp said.
Bartlesville High’s aviation course began with a basic curriculum but became more advanced with each new school year.
“We’re up to Aviation 3 right now, and that’s our goal with construction as well,” Harp said. “We never would have thought of our aviation program growing as much as it has – we actually had to expand into a different room. We have high hopes that our construction course will be the same way. We’re not sure where it will be in two to three years, but we do expect it to expand and to grow.”
The high school will maintain the beginner construction course while launching advanced courses, Harp said.
The Construction Tech program does not currently issue professional certifications.
“But that is definitely something we could look at in the future,” Harp said.
Gov. Kevin Stitt signed House Bill 3278 into law in May, expanding graduation requirements to include career-readiness training. The Construction Tech course is currently an elective, but the school could create a construction course with an emphasis on geometry that would count as a core math credit and help fulfill graduation requirements, Harp said.
“That law just got passed this summer and our district has formed a committee to work through how we’re going to implement it at our district because there are some local controls in creating your pathways and what that will count for,” he said. “We actually had our first meeting last week about getting that together and what that will look like. So, right now it’s just elective credit. But yes, that is definitely what we are headed towards.”
