School bond: Technical facilities need an overhaul

Oak Harbor High School needs a fully modernized “work space” to prepare young people for a modern-day job. This is the only way to make our students competitive in today’s rapidly changing job market and world economy.

All 11 Career and Technical programs at OHHS have outstanding teachers and deliver an education that could replicate a Skills Center despite enormous handicaps: cramped quarters, insufficient electricity for equipment hook ups, and inadequate, outdated labs.

The Wildcat TV and Graphic Arts programs mix professional-level computers and software with up to 30 students in tiny classrooms, inadequate electrical power, stifling air circulation and poor lighting. The state recognized Automotive Tech program is spread between a classroom that doubles as a Culinary Arts Bistro and a lab that has cars piled on top of where students are working. The award-winning Culinary Arts students work out of cramped old fashioned Home Economics kitchens, setting up and dismantling their Bistro for community requests.

Computer Maintenance, Metals Fabrication, Marketing, Business Education and Digital Design students deserve computer labs and rooms that are reasonably shaped, provide good storage space and not overcrowded.

These issues are not about lack of maintenance, but inadequate and overcrowded facilities. Taking care of today’s pressing needs will be rewarded by generations of productive citizens.

Cynthia Shelton

Oak Harbor

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