Forced into portable classrooms by a “one-in-a-thousand-year” 2016 flood, Herbert Hoover High School’s woodshop is now back and better than ever. 

In its new facilities that opened in the fall of 2023, students from the Clendenin, West Virginia, school, recently completed the build and install of furniture and millwork for the Kanawha County (West Virginia) school board meeting room. 

For the project, the students in the school’s woodworking program made a V-shaped conference table, four 8-foot auxiliary tables, and a stand-alone podium. The back wall features 4-foot wainscoting on the bottom with cased-in vertical shiplap on top, according to Timothy Meyer, shop teacher.

The main conference table is where the members of the board of education and the superintendent of schools sit during meetings. The table was constructed in three pieces in the school’s new shop and joined together after it was transported to the boardroom. 

The two side tables measure 8 feet long, with the center section having a total width of 82 inches. The depth of the tabletop is 30 inches. The tabletop and top ledger board are made of 8/4 select walnut bought from Wilson Lumber Co. in Elkins, West Virginia, and planed to 1-1/2 inches after glue-up. A privacy skirt is 4/4 select walnut bought from Facemyer Lumber Co. in Pomeroy, Ohio, with ogee rails and stiles and ogee raised panels. 

The inside face of the table is trimmed out with 2-1/2-inch vertical shiplap. Under the ledger board, the students attached 3-1/2-inch crown moulding on the outside and 3/4-inch quarter round on the inside face.

The joints at the corners are hidden by 2 x 2-inch fluted columns made with a Laguna CNC turner and notched out on a table saw. 

The wall is 85 inches tall, with 4-foot wainscoting made to match the privacy skirt on the bottom. It was built in three pieces in the shop and attached to the wall. On top of the wainscoting, the students attached a 3-5/8-inch wide ledger board with 3-1/2-inch crown moulding underneath to match the tables. 

The top 36-inch section of the wall is a frame built out of 4-inch walnut strips that divide it into three sections. The spaces in the frame are filled in with 2-1/2-inch vertical wainscoting that was nailed in place. The edges of the wainscoting were cased in with 3/4-inch quarter round. 

Meyer said that this part of the process faced some structural challenges. “The students had to build out the back wall as it was brick about halfway up and plaster the rest of the way to the ceiling,” he said. “Students ‘Tapconned’ (concrete screws) furring strips to the wall on 24-inch centers and screwed 1/2-inch plywood to the furring strips to give us a surface to nail the shiplap, frame, and wainscoting.”

Back to work
The school’s woodshop was still working to get back on its feet after the massive flood five years earlier when the program won a bid to build courtroom furniture for the West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA). Three students in the program were paid to build the furniture. 

“Recently,” said Meyer, “our district’s board of education followed the same plan the court used and hired students to build furniture for their renovated conference room.” 

The program, which has now grown from those three students to six, included a summer work program that has taught the students life lessons, things beyond just a paycheck. “Students have seen how hard work and great work practices, including being early to work every day, staying drug-free, and having a great work ethic, will take them wherever they want to go after high school,” he said. 

The students start work every day at 8 a.m. and are typically at the shop every day by 7:45 a.m. They stay busy working and are picking up many new skills every day. 

One student who recently completed his sophomore year of high school, has opened his own furniture and cabinet shop. “He’s picked up many good-sized jobs with residents and businesses,” said Meyer, “and I believe he will do well as his craftsmanship and standards he sets for himself are very high. Although he was not with the group that worked on the ICA project, I think he was partially inspired by the work the original group of students had done.”

The student, Austin Taylor, started as a first-year student in the portable shop and Meyer said he could tell this was something Taylor wanted to do on the first day of class. He had his own safety glasses and brought his own tape measure. “I don’t think he had a lot of experience, but he was always working to make himself better every day. He took on the most difficult assignments in the shop and excelled.”

Taylor said that the breadth of the program has helped him start his business. “What I’ve learned in shop class has been a bit of everything. I’ve learned to use tools I have never used before and how to use them properly. I’ve also learned many processes, from making a simple panel to complex trim work.”

He pointed out several reasons that he wanted to start his own business. “First, I loved taking plain old boards and turning them into beautiful furniture; two, using my hands to use all types of tools, from hand tools to CNC; and having a teacher who believed in me and finding a passion I loved. I started making coasters and cutting boards, and now I’m working on my own business, to have more jobs making bookcases, cabinets, tables, and desks.”

The curriculum is centered around NCCER (National Center for Construction Education and Research) cabinetmaking. After completing the course, students can be certified in NCCER core, NCCER cabinetmaking, and OSHA 10 manufacturing, and can earn the WV Governor’s Workforce Credential.

Drying out
In 2021, the shop class was being taught out of portable classrooms (trailers) because the school was severely damaged by what Meyer calls a 1,000-year flood in 2016. This past year was the first year in the new school and its fully equipped furniture and cabinet-making shop, he said.

After the 2016 flood, Meyer and his students spent a year splitting half a day with the community’s middle school, where it shared a room with the school health teacher. “The middle school went from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., and we came in at 12 p.m. and went to 4 p.m.,” he said.

“We had room for a table saw, a 12-inch planer, a bandsaw, a compound miter saw, and a drill press,” Meyer added. “We had to open the back door and point the planer outside whenever we planed.” 

From that space, the students were able to make two sets of kitchen cabinets and an iguana cage. “There is nothing special about these other than sentimental as we were rebuilding, but we had to start somewhere,” said Meyer. “The space was very, very tight, as we had roughly a 25 x 30-foot area. I am very thankful for what we were given, and the middle school teachers and administration were extremely good to us.”

The next year the program moved into portable classrooms, and they remained squeezed in there until 2023. Still, to support the program, the woodshop was located in the largest classroom in the school. Room was made by utilizing three trailers lined up side-by-side with the interior walls removed. The walls were drywall, the ceiling 8 feet tall, and the floors made of tile. 

“Students had to dodge drop-down air hoses, and we busted out a lot of ceiling tiles and knocked holes in the drywall, all of which was accidental as we had very tight quarters as well. The floors were particularly tricky, as any sawdust on the floors turned the shop into an ice skating rink. We were limited on storage, so many of our larger projects and project parts were stored in an office conference room until they were sent out for installation. 

“There were a lot of great memories in the portable classroom,” he added. “I saw some of the best young woodworkers develop their skills in that room, and I am extremely thankful for the effort the county and state put forth to give us that space.”

They moved into the new shop in fall 2023. There is plenty of room as it has a large production area, assembly area, spray/ finish room, sanding room, and CNC room. Outside is a covered area where they use a TimberKing Sawmill to produce some of the lumber requirements. Having concrete floors, cinder block walls, and a 12-foot ceiling gives the students more freedom to move safely throughout the classroom. 

“After the flood, all of my shop equipment was condemned,” said Meyer. “I was given a lot of support by our school district to buy equipment to get started, then I spent a lot of time writing grants for a lot of the equipment we have.

“I think it says a lot about our school district’s superintendent, Dr. Tom Williams, his staff, and the board of education of Kanawha County Schools to entrust a project of this expense to six high school students. Not only did they save the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, but they also gave these students the best educational experience I can think of, and gave our students a huge boost of confidence.”