The Yutan High School woods and welding shops look a lot different than they have in years past. The improved shop is thanks, in part, to the work of new skilled and technical sciences teacher Brian Fitzgerald.
“I spent over 204 hours of summer just going through stuff and organizing stuff and seeing all the things that we needed,” said Fitzgerald, who overhauled the woods and welding shops as well as reorganized the classroom and added an office.
Fitzgerald has a lot of experience with improving equipment and curriculum due to his 37 years working in education at four different high schools.
Fitzgerald said he started his education career at Shelton High School, where he taught for 10 years, followed by Wood River High School for four years, DC West High School for 17 years and Boys Town High school for six years before coming to Yutan this year.
At these previous schools, Fitzgerald put in a lot of hard work to improve their skilled and technical sciences programs. Fitzgerald said he added more curriculum modules to the programs at Shelton and DC West. When he arrived at Boys Town, they didn’t have any trades classes.
“I helped build the Welding, Construction and Automotive Program (at Boys Town) to what it is today,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald enjoys working to make programs the best that they can be, which is what drew him to Yutan.
“I like building programs,” Fitzgerald said. “I found out Yutan had a job opening and I saw that they were wanting to redo their trades program, so that’s why I decided to come in.”
Students have recognized the experience Fitzgerald brings as he’s adjusting the program at Yutan.
“Mr. Fitzgerald I think is more organized,” said sophomore Madalynn Bussing, who is taking Welding I. “He knows what he’s planning ahead.”
The students are currently working on a variety of different projects, such as building cornhole games and doghouses and learning basic fundamentals of woods and welding.
“I like shop because it’s fun [and] you can learn how to actually do stuff,” said sophomore Dryden Hobza, who is in Fitzgerald’s Welding I class.
Some students choose to take a shop class because it’s a career they want to pursue in the future.
“I just really liked the building and welding industry because I think it’s something that I’ll do when I’m older,” said Bussing.
This is Fitzgerald’s favorite part of being a shop teacher.
“Watching students go on and get jobs in the trades area and then when they get along later on in life and thank you for teaching them,” said Fitzgerald.
