DIY course coming to Stratford High

New technology education class will focus on home and auto repairs, upkeep

During his 11 years teaching at Stratford High School, Marshall Lehman has seen shifts in the district. When he started, there was a notable push for students to focus on college readiness, but Lehman said offering students the chance to build career and life skills is now growing.

The high school’s technology education department will have a new class come fall, one that piqued the interest of over 75 students when the 2023-24 course catalog came out recently. The general DIY skills and maintenance class will have a variety of content, with students building skills around home and vehicle ownership by learning about simple plumbing, electrical work and other topics.

“It’s very telling that we had a lot of students in this school that are looking for something like this and wanting to gain that knowledge,” Lehman said of the initial interest. “… Looking at the kids that signed up, there are a lot of them who we’ve not seen in our [tech ed] classes at the high school level.”

According to Lehman, the class will be one of a kind locally, although he’s heard about other districts around the state starting to offer similar classes. The course came to fruition as Lehman was hearing things from local youth apprenticeship employers about what general skills students might be lacking as they entered jobs.

“We hit on a lot of things, but not necessarily in one class,” Lehman said. “And sometimes we kind of advance through to the more advanced stuff and we don’t spend as much time on some of the basics.”

Stratford High will be offering two sections of the course next year, with interested junior and senior students prioritized on the schedule first. It will be an introduction class for what Lehman considers life skills. Enrollees will rotate through sections, learning things like how to repair drywall, replace electrical switches, change a car’s oil and tires, inspect brake pads and do basic work on small engines like lawnmowers.

“The cost of getting these things repaired is very expensive and also, with the lack of labor in this area, it sometimes takes a while to get these things fixed,” Lehman said. “We feel giving the students this basic knowledge will help them minimize life stress and save money.”

Lehman said local businesses and employers will be involved by having staff come in to help teach certain units as well as providing supplies. He’s optimistic this course will expose students to different careers and potentially encourage them to take additional tech ed classes or pursue a youth apprenticeship.

“We’ve had some statistics saying that only 30 percent of students that go into a career out of school have actually had experience in that career in high school and worked at a job setting that dealt with it,” Lehman said. “We’d like to get that number to 70 percent. It’s going to take a lot to do that.”