“Who is going to build the houses?” That’s the question Shoshoni High School Building Trades instructor Cory Clemetson asks.
In a world where working with your hands in a skilled trade is looked down on, who is going to do the actual work that keeps society moving?
In Shoshoni, they’ve taken that question seriously with a wide variety of vocational classes that not only prepare students for the workplace, but also ignite an interest in becoming a skilled craftsman.
Clemetson is back home after a career in education, craftsmanship, and agriculture. A standout athlete at Shoshoni, he graduated in 1985.
“I’ve been around the block once,” the jovial shop teacher said.
Clemetson earned his industrial arts education degree and taught for nine months in Bennett, Colorado before returning to Wyoming. He worked at Midwest High School and Fort Washakie for two years each, then was a familiar face in the industrial arts shop at the James H. Moore Career Center at Riverton High School for 10 years.
He went into business for the next 16 years as the owner of C Squared Construction.
“90% of my work was countertops,” Clemetson said.
His eye for exacting accuracy in his own work translates to high standards among his students.
Clemetson’s woodshop is compact, filled with standard equipment like saws, sanders, and planers, and has a large CNC machine at one end for custom engraving.
The projects in process by his students are impressive.
He works with freshman through senior high school students in the shop during the morning, then spends the final two hours of the day in his Building Trades class at 707 Maple Street in Shoshoni.
District 24 purchased the property to build a home. In an intriguing mix of entrepreneurship and instruction, superintendent Bruce Thoren has a system in place that pays students to work during the summer months and then to take Clemetson’s class during the school year to finish the home construction.
“I have four students for one hour each afternoon, and one for the entire two-hour block,” Clemetson said.
The house they’re building a couple of hundred yards south of the Fremont 24 Bus Barn is impressive. Completing it with a student crew of a dozen or more in a three-hour block, five days a week, would be a challenge. Getting the job done with five students for just an hour or two a day would be impossible.
A House Goes Up – Cory Clemetson
Impossible isn’t a word you hear much at Shoshoni High School. Innovative leadership, hard-working teachers, and diligent students accomplish much more than the naysayers think is possible.
With the turmoil in Cheyenne, the ability to deliver this type of hands-on instruction to students in a rural setting is up in the air.
“Why would they want to defund this part of Wyoming,” Clemetson said. “It’s one of the best things we have going.”
Some might question the scale and cost of building a home with just five students. As the late Wyoming senator Al Simpson once said, “Wyoming is just a small town with really long streets.”
Those streets stretch from the school to local businesses in many ways.
Shoshoni students do the framing, roofing, siding, sheetrock, and finish work on their own. Other licensed applications, such as plumbing, electricity, and HVAC, are done by contractors. That’s where Clemetson’s work with his C Squared Construction business comes into play. He was a subcontractor along with these professionals on many projects.
Modern Plumbing of Riverton, Jadeco Electric of Thermopolis, and Advanced Heating from Riverton not only installed the pipes, vents, and electrical connections, but they also worked with the students.
“The contractors worked with the kids,” Clemetson said. “People want good help, and they’re willing to train them.”
The 180-day school year is augmented by 20 full days of summer work for the students. They earn $17 an hour for an eight-hour day. In this way, the house can be completed in just about a calendar year.
The students spent a total of 265 hours working on the project during the summer.
With the concrete work completed on the four-foot crawl space, the crew of Branson Thompson, Treyson Thompson, Fynn Franks, Malachi Litz, and Jordan Gilbertson went to work last summer.
This school year, Franks and Litz were joined by Cayden Bridger and Carlos Marrufo.
“We’re not teaching a huge amount of people, but last year two of the graduates of this program went to work for local contractors,” Clemetson said.
Not finding people to work is the biggest concern you hear from local businesses. A program that teaches students how to use tools, read blueprints, and work constructively is a step in the right direction in creating a viable workforce for Fremont County and beyond.
Materials are purchased locally. AD Martin Lumber in Riverton built the trusses. They hired David Builders and Crane from Lander for a crane to set the trusses in class.
“The support I’ve been getting is outstanding, people are interested,” Clemetson said.
Even if the skills learned in woodshop class or at the jobsite in the Building Trades class don’t materialize in a career as a carpenter, plumber, electrician, or HVAC technician, they remain viable skills. Skills a future homeowner can use on their property.
They’re also skills that students can use in early adulthood to augment their income.
“These kids can hire on in the summer at a construction job and pay for college,” Clemetson said.
They can either be paid or simply pave their way to an unknown future. Skills are something that don’t depend on market conditions, the ups and downs of the local economy, or any other outside force. If you have them, you have them, and you have an asset no one can take away.