Creede Board of Education recognizes Automotive and Welding program

CREEDE — The Creede School District Board of Education recognized the Automotive and Welding Program during their meeting on Jan. 18. 

The program has been part of the Creede School District’s curriculum for several years bringing hands-on education to students in the introduction and advanced classes.

The Career Technical Education Program at the district promotes technical education to students by introducing them to trade careers such as engineering and mechatronics, architecture, graphic design, industrial design, digital media-video, automotive, welding and construction tech.

Creede Superintendent Keith Crispell recognized Automotive and Welding Instructor George Regan for his hard work and dedication to students and asked Regan to share some of the recent student projects.

“I would just like to recognize George for his outstanding work. The dedication of this man is outstanding, and I wanted the board to know about some of the work he has been doing with students in his program,” said Crispell. 

Regan highlighted some of the work of the students.

“Students have been working on larger projects than the ones I brought to show you today like building metal frames and some stands for tools, but I had some horseshoes lying around and brought them in for students to do some art,” Regan said.

Some of the art shown by Regan included sculptures welded together from horseshoes and a cut-away teaching tool that shows the inner workings of a four-cylinder engine.

“This is used to show how an engine works from the inside. You can do this with transmissions as well. When the crank is turned fast enough it shows the detonation of the spark inside the four-cylinder engine," Regan said. 

Regan said that he would eventually like to sell some of the art projects to help fund the program.

“I am really proud of the students, and I am also trying to show them how to repurpose parts and materials. Eventually, I would like to sell some of the artwork to help fund the program,” he said.

In addition to the welding projects that students have been working on, Regan’s Automotive class has also been working on vehicles for family and friends doing oil changes, diagnostics and some repairs. Though Regan and his students have to be selective on what vehicles they work on they have started servicing the small county fleet and are in talks with the Mineral County Sheriff’s Department about potentially servicing their fleet. 

“The students understand that oil changes and servicing vehicles are kind of their bread and butter and eventually I would like to get away from that for the more experienced students who could begin doing more diagnostic work and more repairs. It helps keep the interest in the program," Regan said.

Proceeds from the work go directly back to the program.

The board offered to help in any way they could and thanked Regan for his work with students.


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