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There’s a banner hanging at Chisago Lakes High School printed with the district motto Engage, Educate, Empower.  These words would nicely describe a new work program partnership between the high school and a Chisago City manufacturer, Kendall Howard.  The work program connects a student with a paid spot in a corporate setting. This one is for hands-on manual skills development, but future work sites cuold be for exploring a career where client/personnel and mangement skills need to be top notch.  

The student in this program will be engaged in the community, learning as he/she goes and developing self esteem and independence.
Cole Brophy was recommended by industrial technology department instructors for this new slot, in this intial partnership at Kendall Howard. He will be apprenticing starting immediately.

All the parties involved got Brophy off to a positive start late last week,  with a “signing” much like how athletes commit to their post secondary sports phase.

CLHS Principal Dave Ertl stated he is pleased to see this work program up and running.  He gave much credit to Kendall Howard reaching out and asking about the possibility of teaming up.

CLHS  work based learning coordinator Mickelle Pohlman agreed, saying “Kendall Howard really was the driving force.”  She said the company made this simple to put together, and left the selection of a candidate in the school’s hands.

Pohlman said Brophy should be an extraordinary participant who will set the bar for future participants and represent the program well, and hopefully more local firms will reach out.  

With costly, exotic materials used in manufacturing now, plus the need to operate highly technical production machinery,  along with laser and computer-aided parts creation and assembly, many manufacturing plants consistently have openings for skilled positions.  There are a host of special educational efforts in manufacturing, ranging from a mobile welding instruction lab in this region to state programs that fund training.

Kendall Howard, north of Hwy 8 in Chisago City,  makes racking/shelving systems to securely house electronics and other sensitive equipment components, cables, etc.  

Their pieces are custom designed for networks or single use, and sized for massive equipment needs or small secure applications in military sector to communications settings. They also make I-T furnishings.

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