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Wm. E. Hay Stettler Secondary Campus hosts successful open house

The Wm. E. Hay Stettler Secondary Campus hosted an open house for new students, parents and guardians on Tuesday, Sept. 13.
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Snowmen and other wood craft are built under the careful supervision of Bob Poapst in woodwork class at Wm. E. Hay. Stettler Secondary Campus. The wood shop was part of the Wm. E. Hay Open House on Tuesday evening

The Wm. E. Hay Stettler Secondary Campus hosted an open house for new students, parents and guardians on Tuesday, Sept. 13.

"We had a very successful "Open House," said Principal Norbert Baharally. "We had a lot of parents that came into our school to meet our teachers, visit instructional spaces and ask questions about their students' educational experience in our school." At the open house, parents could sign up for KEV, an online school payment system and Maplewood, which is a student information system with information for parents.

Besides, cosmetology lab was doing demonstrations, the other Career and Technology Studies (CTS) areas were also open and available for tours, such as building construction, fabrication, mechanics and food studies.

"We had athletic information and registration for parents, our Makerspace Room was open for tours with a 3-D printing demonstration, with teachers also being in their classrooms available to answer questions for parents," said Baharally. "We also 'showcased' our Tri-Flex and Bi-Flex spaces that are being used as part of the grades 7–9 Learning Academies."

Bob Poapst was in his wood shop and explained, "Our projects are designed to learn how to use certain tools and perform different techniques. Some of the projects end up as Christmas gifts, particularly the snowman with the Grade 7s, besides other projects such as shelves, small tables, small benches and bird houses/birdfeeders."

The shop receives a budget for supplies and some of the smaller inexpensive tools might be purchased with this budget.

"Students pay $10 to take the class, which covers some of the cost," said Poapst. "For larger machines or more expensive machines there is a different budget."

According to Poapst, the snowman project started when they were looking for a beginners' project where the students would not have to be as precise as some of the advanced projects.

"This would allow them to learn to use some tools while allowing them to have minor errors that would not affect the overall project," added Poapst. "We purchased the snowman at a gift store and used it as a pattern."

Poapst explained that whenever possible they reuse cut-offs and scrap wood from certain projects for other projects.

"Parts of the snowman, a log cabin bird house, and bookends are some of the projects that use scrap wood," said Poapst.