SEQUIM — In its first year, the industrial arts Core Plus Instruction program set a high bar at Sequim Middle School.
Through the school year, 60 students in two sections of the class built picnic tables, hobby horses, tool sheds, benches and, as their major project, a gazebo outside Olympic Peninsula Academy.
“I loved every minute of it,” eighth-grader Lucas Seelye said.
He and classmates were given certificates of appreciation on June 2 for their efforts by OPA principal Ned Floeter, who called their work “awesome stuff.”
“It was great to see you not only working over here, but growing in your skill sets and your confidence that you demonstrated every day,” Floeter said.
“I know that our kids here at OPA are already starting to use this place because they like to eat their lunches out here, but they also like to do some classes out here.”
OPA students sent thank you letters to the middle schoolers, Floeter said.
Core Plus Instruction teacher Bill McFarlen said students started work on the gazebo last November with Seelye saying they worked on it as often as they could in class.
To construct the gazebo, the Port of Port Angeles provided a grant worth about $2,800 for various supplies, Hartnagel Building Supply and supplier OrePac Building Products donated about $4,000 worth in flooring, and the Sequim Sunrise Rotary Club donated funds for tool belts, tools and safety equipment.
All the organizations were recognized for their contributions.
McFarlen said they received so much flooring that have enough for another project.
Floeter emphasized to the students the importance of collaboration between nonprofits, community leaders and industry leaders “because one day, you might be working for a Hartnagel Building Supply or you might be running a Hartnagel Building Supply.”
The gazebo and a shed also built and donated by the middle school class, sit next to a greenhouse that OPA purchased through a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory grant last year.
McFarlen said Core Plus Instruction has covered many industrial trades through the school year and he’s found it to be “a hit.”
“I think it’s a great program,” he said.
“I took industrial arts when I graduated from (Sequim High School) and my dream was to be an industrial arts teacher.”
While there isn’t a similar program at the high school, McFarlen said his agricultural classes will have some construction elements in them that current and future students can learn.
Due to its popularity, Core Plus Instruction will increase from two section to three for the 2025-26 school year, middle school staff said.
While watching his students receive their certificates of appreciation, McFarlen said, “These kids are awesome.”
Throughout the school year, they built 15 large picnic tables and 10 smaller tables to learn angles and used those skills for other building projects, McFarlen said. Two of the tables were donated to OPA for the gazebo.
McFarlen’s plan for next school year is to build a rolling storage unit for the Sequim FFA’s food trailer.
Seelye said he wants to pursue an industrial trade, either as a lineman or a lumberjack, using what he’s learned from his dad and in class.
“I have a lot of memories and made a lot of friends along the way,” he said of Core Plus Instruction.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. He can be reached by email at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com.
