Editor’s Note: This is the second installment in a three-part series about Onalaska High School. The first story in ‘Smart Ax’ — named after a pun on the school’s Logger mascot — focused on the school’s culture, sense of community and Lewis County history class. It can be read at chronline.com.
Most Lewis County high school mascots aren’t viable career options: There are Trojans, Titans, Vikings, Cardinals, Timberwolves, Riverhawks, Tigers, Bearcats, Pirates and Tigers again.
At Onalaska High School, though, students can take a class on being a Logger.
In Kevin Hoffman’s natural resources class, students learn to use a chain saw, swing an ax, operate a weed-whacker, drive a tractor, burn brush and more.
Practical, workplace-style classes are Hoffman’s specialty. He also teaches aquaculture, wood shop and metal shop, and runs the school’s SkillsUSA club, which had recent forays into marksmanship and clam digging.
“I try to mirror everything I do outside as the workforce does,” Hoffman said last week. “You show up to work and you don’t really sit down and you’re not really taught what to do. They’re like, ‘Alright, let’s go.’”
The sink-or-swim strategy seems to work for Hoffman’s students. This week, Onalaska aquaculture students will present at the 72nd Annual Northwest Fish Culture Concepts Conference in Boise, Idaho for about 15 minutes in front of hundreds of professionals, Hoffman said.
“They just share strategies and techniques they use to raise quality fish,” he said. “I took a few students a couple years to it. It’s all adult-level. No other kids, no students, because it’s not very common in high schools.”
What Hoffman really means by “not very common” is “unprecedented.” Onalaska’s aquaculture program has been running for 32 years as part of a mitigation strategy for the TransAlta Coal Plant’s land dam on the Skookumchuck River. TransAlta provides the fish, but Onalaska does the rest.
Annually, students release about 35,000 steelhead, 100,000 coho salmon and 9,000 rainbow trout into the Newaukum River system — which, like the Skookumchuck, is in the Chehalis River Basin. Of the 9,000 trout, 600 are 5-pound “jumbo” trout, kept as a fishing stock for Onalaska’s Carlisle Lake.
The program partners with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force, The Onalaska Alliance and the Chehalis Tribe. For annual fish release day, Hoffman rounds up senators, state and U.S. representatives, county commissioners and community members.
“Mr. Hoffman’s a legend when it comes to networking,” said Onalaska Principal Wade Pilloud in an interview last week. “He has connections, I think, with every tribal entity, state department of natural resources, other teachers. … And the stuff that he gets. What was the last count?”
Hoffman responded, “$294,000 worth of grants and donations in the last seven years.”
A soft spoken junior, 17-year-old Precious Bourdeau, is one of the presenters at the conference in Idaho this week.
She’s in several classes with Hoffman — including natural resources, where she quickly learned she never wanted to use a chain saw again. Aquaculture as a career, though, sounds appealing to Bourdeau.
“This program is important to help kids understand the meaning of taking care of something,” she said.
Concrete concepts
When Hoffman left his career in natural resources to become a teacher, the aquaculture and shop classes were already underway.
The natural resources program was created because, “I think children with chain saws is a great idea,” Hoffman said, laughing.
In reality, his methods are much less casual. The school year began with the students tearing apart the saw owner’s manual before being tested and required to present on “every single piece of safety equipment.”
Making it harder for parents to be weary of the program, too, is its main objective: improve the Onalaska community. Loggers have removed invasive species, cut weeds and burnt brush at a nearby park. Wood shop students and members of Hoffman’s SkillsUSA club have built benches and picnic tables for Carlisle Lake. Burnt Ridge Nursery and Orchards and Raintree Nursery have partnered with Loggers to graft and propagate fruit trees.
Working with tools usually reserved for adults, though less predictable than calculators, helps the kids take ownership in the work, Hoffman said. It was still early in the year when he noticed students correcting and directing each other.
One boy, who has driven a tractor on his family farm since he could toddle, was put in charge of tractor management, Hoffman said, improving his skills in patience, teaching and peer collaboration.
At the same time, Hoffman doesn’t delude his students into believing a career in the trades won’t require education.
Onalaska junior Taden Miller, 16, said he’s interested in welding but, “I’m not really interested in being a chemist.” Hoffman replied: “You’re just dabbling in it right now, but, if you become a welder, there’s so much science. … People that work in the trades, they understand science and chemistry like none others. Like, electricians — they’re a whiz at math.”
Students in his classes, Hoffman said, are often learning math and science in sneaky ways, such as calculating the food necessary for a tank of fish.
“The hands-on is what makes it concrete,” he said, later adding, “If they’re not doing the assignments right, it just won’t work. They’ll tangible see that.”
The Onalaska High School Loggers page often features posts and photos from the school’s unique classes and offerings. Look for more at https://www.facebook.com/onyloggers.
