Local manufacturer donates to WCHS; local teacher, students recognized

If Whitley County High School students want to pursue a career working at a local factory, then they are soon going to get the chance learn on the actual equipment that they may be using when they graduate courtesy of a local manufacturer.

During its monthly meeting last Thursday, the Whitley County Board of Education approved a purchase agreement between Absolute Haitian Corporation Equipment Consignment, Jones Plastic and Engineering and Whitley County High School.

Whitley County Superintendent John Siler said that the roughly $50,000 plastic mold injection machine is something Jones Plastic and Engineering is purchasing brand new for the high school.

Siler said that Jones Plastic will train the school’s electricity teacher, who will then teach the students how to run it and how to trouble shoot problems on it.

Then the teacher will go in and sabotage the machine by disconnecting a wire or replacing a good fuse with a blown fuse and things of that nature.

“Then students have to track it down and trouble shoot and figure out what is wrong with it and get it back going,” Siler said.

He said that this is training, which can benefit students when they graduate no matter what factory they might go to work at.

Maci McKiddy

“A lot of the programmable logic controllers and circuitry and things like that are similar from machine to machine. Whether you are at Jones or Firestone or AISIN, it would be similar all the moving components and things and robotic like stuff,” Siler said.

“That is a huge donation and a huge investment by Jones Plastics and Engineering into our kids, but we are going to send them good workers that are trained at a little higher level than some of the other kids with this investment.”

In addition, the board also took some early steps last Thursday, which could result in the Whitley County High School Baseball Field and Softball Field getting a turf surface.

The board voted to approve geotechnical exploration of the fields not to exceed $20,000.

Siler noted that this is the first step in order to see what kind of drainage might have to be installed if the board pursued installing turf.

“The architects said we need to find out what is underneath here before we design anything. There could be a lot of slate and rocky stuff. You don’t want to have a turf field and not have a properly designed drainage underneath. This is the first step,” he added.

Landen Vanderpool

In other business, the board:

• Approved the purchase of three Freightliner TH10 buses and the purchase of one Freightliner TH3 bus. Siler noted that every year the district tries to replace a few of its oldest or most problematic buses with new vehicles. He said that the last few bus purchases for the district have cost about $150,000 each. The district runs about 60 bus routes per day.
• Presented the March Above and Beyond Award to Whitley East third-grade teacher Josh Vanover, who also served this past season as the first ever coach for the sixth grade district football team.
• Recognized Whitley East Fifth Grader Landen Vanderpool for his district award winning essay, “Why My Mamaw is the Best” which was written for the AARP Grandparent of the Year Essay Contest.
• Recognized Whitley East Sixth Grader Maci McKiddy for her district award winning essay, “Stars and Stripes Forever.” The contest was sponsored by the William Whitley Chapter of the Daughters of the America Revolution.