Luxemburg-Casco School District receives grant from Wisconsin DWD
Post date: Aug 29, 2019 5:26:21 PM
Largest award to a single district will go to advanced manufacturing technical equipment
LUXEMBURG, Wis. – The Luxemburg-Casco School District has been awarded a $50,000 Advanced Manufacturing Technical Education Equipment grant by the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD). Sixteen Wisconsin school districts received DWD grants this year, and L-C was one of two to be given the largest amount allocated to a single district.Overall, DWD presented a total of $500,000 to the 16 districts to fund the acquisition of technical education equipment to prepare students for careers in advanced manufacturing.Among the equipment that the L-C district will purchase with the grant is a CNC lathe, a CNC vertical mill, an ironworker and an air compressor. Approximately 40 Luxemburg-Casco High School students are expected to benefit from the new equipment through expanded CNC manufacturing coursework, beginning with the 2019-20 academic year, according to David Gordon, career and technical education coordinator for the district.
“We thank the State of Wisconsin and the Department of Workforce Development for seeing the available opportunities to further improve our technical education curriculum,” says Luxemburg-Casco School District Superintendent Glenn Schlender. “Our students will benefit greatly from programmatic exposure to the CNC equipment that the district is purchasing with the grant funds, and it will add to our strong program of studies.
“We have a number of tremendous community partners, D&S Machine Service and Olson Fabrication in particular, who wrote letters of support to the DWD and whose commitment to Luxemburg-Casco Schools helped to make this happen.”
D&S Machine Service has partnered with the district through equipment donation and by having its personnel go into the classroom. During the 2018-19 academic year, three D&S employees helped to teach L-C students on a rotational basis.“We want to continue to develop the workforce here in our local area,” says Russ Nowak, president of D&S Machine Service in Luxemburg, Wis. “The goal is for students to realize earlier that they want a career in manufacturing.”Olson Fabrication, a custom metal fabricator located in Algoma, Wis., has had a similar experience of engagement with the district. The company has made a financial contribution to the technical education department, along with holding classroom tours of its facility. This past summer, it hired a Luxemburg-Casco High School student as a welder and fitter; that student will continue with Olson on an every-other-day basis during the upcoming school year.“There is a need to grow the next generation of welders,” says Shawn Olson, president of Olson Fabrication. “We need to teach them this profession. With an older workforce, it’s important to show students our business and let them know that these are good-paying jobs.”According to DWD, the grants are intended to address Wisconsin's skilled worker shortage by increasing the number of high school students trained in advanced manufacturing fields, to accelerate student entry into the workforce and to prepare students for stable careers and success in a modern, global and competitive economy.
"At DWD, we strongly believe in a sound workforce investment strategy that includes advocating for careers in manufacturing, one of Wisconsin's strongest economic sectors," says DWD Secretary Caleb Frostman. "The equipment purchased from these grants, and students' interaction with it, will encourage consideration of and planning for careers in manufacturing."
Information on all of the 2019 DWD grants can be found at https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/dwd/newsreleases/2019/190726_man_tech_ed_grants.htm.
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The Luxemburg-Casco School District serves nearly 2,000 Northeast Wisconsin students annually through four schools: the primary (4K-2) and intermediate (3-6) schools, both in Luxemburg; the middle school (7-8) in Casco; and the high school (9-12) in Luxemburg. The district maintains a strong tradition of academic and extracurricular excellence while preparing students to thrive in a global community. Located between Green Bay, Door County and Lake Michigan, the educational community has been in existence since the early 1900s, with Luxemburg and Casco operating as separate districts until they merged in 1968. More information may be found at http://www.luxcasco.k12.wi.us/home. “We Are Spartans”
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