Apprenticeship in rewind
By Shawn Lenczowski
We just finished up our last class for the 2009 -2010 class year with the caulker pointer cleaners taught by Mark Roddy. They wrapped up a few projects around the building and learned about leak chasing and waterproofing along with some hands on with sheet metal flashing.
In May Seattle hosted the Western States Apprenticeship Contest attended by Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. There were 19 Brick apprentices, 11 Tile apprentices, 8 PCC, and 4 Marble apprentices registered for the competition. We sent Keegan Dunning 90% apprentice working for B&B Tile & Masonry and Martin Gorton 80% apprentice working for Bratton Masonry representing the brick trades. Matteo Russo 95% apprentice working for Schonert & Associates and Caz Helmstetter 70% apprentice working for Roedel Tile representing the tile trades. John Lambert 80% apprentice and Josh Dick 70% apprentice both working for Pioneer Waterproofing and representing PCC trades. Each trade had a 5 1/2hr project to test their skills on. When all the dust settled we ended up with one apprentice on the podium, which was John Lambert taking 3rd place for PCC. We should all congratulate these apprentices on a job well done and being in the top percentages for their trade here in the west.
Some other notable moments through the year were back in January the 80-90% brick apprentices learned under the watchful eye of Dan Bonife how to construct and build a fireplace. They all built their own fireboxes and then teamed up to build a working fireplace together. They all enjoyed this project a great deal.
Back in October Denis Farris and myself took a group of tile apprentices over to the Perry Center to lay brick pavers on the interior of a greenhouse we had been working on. The greenhouse is for horticultural therapy for disadvantaged and left behind children and serves as therapy for them all year around. The whole project turned out very well and our students should be proud of it.
The JATC and I finished up a revision of our rules and policies and implemented a progressive discipline policy for our students this year. This will bring our program up to where other programs are already and hold our apprentices to a high standard. It will make them accountable for their actions which will make them better and more productive students and craft workers. This year I have also been working putting a written curriculum for each trade in place, which is now a state requirement. I will continue to try and improve our programs and take it to the next level.
In closing I would like to thank Dan Bonife (80-90% brick), Mark Bator (finishers), Mark Roddy (CPC) and our newest instructor Bart Jensen (tile) for coming in and passing on their experiences to the next generation of trades people. I would also like to say I’m very proud of our student’s achievements and level of competency. If any of our members have any concerns or suggestions or just want to volunteer feel free to contact me.
