Foster Tech Center up and running: ‘Wow’

FARMINGTON – The new temporary home to 10 of Foster Tech Center’s programs has come a long way since school started on Aug. 31.

As visitors at the center’s open house toured the combination classroom-workshops all neatly arranged and orderly in a section of the former Franklin Shoe facility on High Street, it was hard to imagine the scene students faced on that first day of school, a mere four weeks ago.

Over the summer, the classroom spaces, designed by Foster Tech students, had been sectioned off with 1,000 sheets of installed sheet-rocked walls – enough to built three standard houses. Wiring, safety code standards, and more were installed. Then the work to move all of the equipment needed for the center’s classes, ranging from culinary arts to automotive technology, progressed through the summer.

On that first day of school, instead of settling behind a desk to begin their study, students pitched in help arrange their work spaces into usable classroom spaces from piles of equipment left by movers. In Rob Olsen’s Metal Fabrication class, students helped build welding booths. In Sean Minear’s Culinary Arts class, a new kitchen had to be set up. Computer Technology instructor Richard Wilde wired the facility and continues to fix digital glitches that keep cropping up.

“It set a good example of what can be accomplished when everyone works together,” said Glenn Kapiloff, the center’s director.

Th work will continue. Some programs will be housed here for a year while others will be here for three years until the construction of the $64 million renovation and building expansion at Mt. Blue High School’s state-of-art learning campus is completed in 2013.

Making water available to the culinary arts kitchen, the eye wash station in the automotive shop and the dark room in commercial arts, is an example of the details that needed to be prioritized towards accomplishment, said Kapiloff.

“Wow,” was Valerie Taylor’s first reaction on entering the new space. Taylor worked at the Franklin Shoe then Farmington Shoe factory for 39 years. “I think it’s wonderful,” she said smiling.