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Nearly-complete auto shop overhaul the first of many privately-funded improvements at Diman
Michael Gagne
Herald News Staff Reporter
Students from various shops at Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School are back at school this week and have resumed work on a new customer service center at the school's automotive technology shop. It's expected to open at the start of next year.
FALL RIVER — With metal studs now installed, the skeletal walls of the new customer service center at Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School’s automotive technology shop, it would appear the project — a year and a half in the making — is taking shape.
It’s the first such project to have been funded by the Diman Bengal Education Foundation, which has now set out to raise more private funds for upcoming projects.
Members of the foundation’s board of directors said they hope to embark on more than one project going forward. And those projects, they said, would enhance the educational experience of Diman students.
They are projects that students should benefit from, but which likely cannot be funded by the school district itself, as it is already struggling with a tight foundation budget.
As it’s being constructed, the customer service center is also serving as a learning opportunity for students in other shops.
Drafting, carpentry, metal fabrication, electricity andplumbing students have been involved in building it at various intervals so far.
“It looks like typical Diman work. It’s professionally done — you would expect this work from a high-end contractor,” Carl Sawejko, who serves as first vice president on the foundation board, said during a recent walk-through of the shop.
The customer service center is being constructed where the shop office had been. Now the office will be smaller, and one corner will serve as what instructors have described as a “tool crib.” The remaining space will serve as the counter and inventory area.
School officials expect the project will be completed by the end of this school year, meaning the customer service center, which is a large component of the automotive service industry, will open at the start of the 2015-16 school year.
As the project progresses, space is a little tight in the automotive technology shop, but department head John Chicharro said, “It’s progressing nicely. The students will do a nice job.”
Plus, he noted, when it opens, that new counter will train students for what Chicharro calls an industry need.
“Forty percent of people hiring are looking for counter managers,” he said.
Gabe Andrade, another member of the foundation’s board of directors, sees the benefit for students. It will enable them to serve clients in a setting similar those they will encounter in the real world.
“This particular project lends a professional attitude,” he said.
Edward Hill, the foundation’s secretary, explained that the board will begin looking at potential projects and will likely decide this spring which one it will tackle next. Those potential projects the foundation may look at next include outfitting existing physics, biology and chemistry laboratories with new technology, to make them innovative. The machine tools shop, school officials said, could use a new storage unit, as could the gymnasium. Diman’s cafeteria could also use an update.School officials would like to update the school’s metal fabrication and graphic communications shops.
Each of those projects require funding, so board members will be looking to align them with potential sponsors, many of them local business owners and graduates of Diman, Hill explained. “Two-thirds of the funding (for the service center) came from sponsors,” he said.
Those sponsors included Empire Hyundai and BayCoast Bank.
“The foundation provides a way for the public to give money back,” Sawejko said.
Herald News Staff Reporter
Students from various shops at Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School are back at school this week and have resumed work on a new customer service center at the school's automotive technology shop. It's expected to open at the start of next year.
FALL RIVER — With metal studs now installed, the skeletal walls of the new customer service center at Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School’s automotive technology shop, it would appear the project — a year and a half in the making — is taking shape.
It’s the first such project to have been funded by the Diman Bengal Education Foundation, which has now set out to raise more private funds for upcoming projects.
Members of the foundation’s board of directors said they hope to embark on more than one project going forward. And those projects, they said, would enhance the educational experience of Diman students.
They are projects that students should benefit from, but which likely cannot be funded by the school district itself, as it is already struggling with a tight foundation budget.
As it’s being constructed, the customer service center is also serving as a learning opportunity for students in other shops.
Drafting, carpentry, metal fabrication, electricity andplumbing students have been involved in building it at various intervals so far.
“It looks like typical Diman work. It’s professionally done — you would expect this work from a high-end contractor,” Carl Sawejko, who serves as first vice president on the foundation board, said during a recent walk-through of the shop.
The customer service center is being constructed where the shop office had been. Now the office will be smaller, and one corner will serve as what instructors have described as a “tool crib.” The remaining space will serve as the counter and inventory area.
School officials expect the project will be completed by the end of this school year, meaning the customer service center, which is a large component of the automotive service industry, will open at the start of the 2015-16 school year.
As the project progresses, space is a little tight in the automotive technology shop, but department head John Chicharro said, “It’s progressing nicely. The students will do a nice job.”
Plus, he noted, when it opens, that new counter will train students for what Chicharro calls an industry need.
“Forty percent of people hiring are looking for counter managers,” he said.
Gabe Andrade, another member of the foundation’s board of directors, sees the benefit for students. It will enable them to serve clients in a setting similar those they will encounter in the real world.
“This particular project lends a professional attitude,” he said.
Edward Hill, the foundation’s secretary, explained that the board will begin looking at potential projects and will likely decide this spring which one it will tackle next. Those potential projects the foundation may look at next include outfitting existing physics, biology and chemistry laboratories with new technology, to make them innovative. The machine tools shop, school officials said, could use a new storage unit, as could the gymnasium. Diman’s cafeteria could also use an update.
School officials would like to update the school’s metal fabrication and graphic communications shops.
Each of those projects require funding, so board members will be looking to align them with potential sponsors, many of them local business owners and graduates of Diman, Hill explained. “Two-thirds of the funding (for the service center) came from sponsors,” he said.
Those sponsors included Empire Hyundai and BayCoast Bank.
“The foundation provides a way for the public to give money back,” Sawejko said.- See more at: http://www.heraldnews.com/article/20150224/NEWS/150228047/1997/NEWS/?Start=2#sthash.MpCFlqgt.dpuf
Each of those projects require funding, so board members will be looking to align them with potential sponsors, many of them local business owners and graduates of Diman, Hill explained. “Two-thirds of the funding (for the service center) came from sponsors,” he said.
Those sponsors included Empire Hyundai and BayCoast Bank.
“The foundation provides a way for the public to give money back,” Sawejko said.