The St. Louis Wood Shop was recently moved to the old maintenance building, and construction began at the end of the 2023-2024 school year and will shortly come to an end. Students have now been able to attend class in the new wood shop.
In 1995, the St. Louis Wood shop was unfortunately put to an end until 2018 when Phil Maxwell, the current wood shop teacher, started the shop back up as an after-school program. The old shop was located in the old AG room. For five years the students of St. Louis who participated in the wood shop were limited based on the space, there wasn’t enough room for many projects, such as the mass production of Christmas toys.
“It was a long process. It took a lot of thinking and designing,” said Mr. Maxwell. Since the new wood shop isn’t connected to the school, now it has its own ventilation and air conditioning along with a giant dust collecting system. These new systems are crucial for the wood shop, as they take up less space and improve the air quality. Maxwell has raised over $100,000 for all the equipment in the new shop such as a new planer and table saw with a $1200 sled attachment. The wood shop has also received numerous donations of power tools such as a table saw, a drill press, and a band saw.
Students such as senior Justin Rodriguez are hopeful for the future of this new wood shop. He said, “In the new shop we have more room, more availability, and being able to give back to our community.”
Senior Bryan Wing said, “I really like the setup and design. It’s very organized and it’s much more spacious than the old wood shop. In the old wood shop, I’d have to wait a few minutes for somebody to get done using a machine before I could even walk through an area, but with the new shop I don’t have to wait.”
