This is the first installment of a series on the innovative vocational education offerings at Shoshoni High School.
Using a little “outside the box” thinking and with much of the cost covered by grants, Shoshoni has enriched its vocational education course offerings beyond the standard, utilizing non-teaching professionals in the district to deliver classes. Transportation directors, school nurses, and school resource officers use Professional Industry Career Permits managed by the Wyoming Professional Teaching Standards Board, to deliver both high school and dual-credit classes for the students of Fremont County School District 24.
The automotive instructor grew up on the ranch in Lysite, never intending to be teacher, but James Gardner now works with seniors at Shoshoni High School every morning in an Auto Revive class, and another class training students to get a CDL (Commercial Driver’s License).
Gardner is the Fremont County School District 24 Transportation Director, and along with mechanic Brandon Doyle and superintendent Bruce Thoren, they’re an unlikely triumvirate of instructors.
Unlikely, maybe, but effective and engaging, absolutely.
Thoren works with students on preparing for the CDL exam. Gardner and Doyle use the District 24 bus barn as their classroom.
“We meet one hour a day,” Gardner said. “We combined the CDL and restore classes. Bruce does the theory portion of the CDL class.”
To get a CDL, you must be 18 years old when you take the exam. That limits the class to seniors. There are currently six senior boys enrolled in the class.
“It gets me out of English class,” senior Trindan Rogers joked. “I get to work on trucks. It’s a hobby of mine.”
Tristan’s twin brother, Peyton, had similar thoughts, “I get to work on trucks, it’s something I like to do.”
The brothers plan to farm on an 80-acre parcel of land along Riverview Road in Riverton. Trindan will drive over the road as well.
The Auto Restore class is a unique idea. Students work on fully restoring a donated vehicle, both mechanically and cosmetically.
“This is our main project,” Gardner said. “We get a pickup donated every year. The kids can bring in their own projects, too.”
The truck in process this spring is a 1994 Chevy donated by Bo Kasper.
Logan Schubach brought in his twin-cab pickup to install sound-dampening. He and his classmates stripped the entire interior, including seats, headliner, and door panels, and are now rebuilding it.
This type of class would be a dream for many high school boys, but it’s a launching platform as well for future employment, or further education depending on the student’s goals.
Senior Michael Wilczewski has plans to pursue a degree in Mechatronics. “It’s a multidisciplinary program with electricity, computer programming, and mechanical engineering. I’m looking at Utah Valley State, but the University of Wyoming might have a degree program too.”
For the day-to-day aspects of the class, the students bring in vehicles to change oil, do brake jobs, or other mechanical repairs.
“We changed a transmission last year,” Gardner said.
He’s been the transportation director since 2023.
A recent addition that the students have been assembling is a professional paint booth, large enough to handle vehicles up to 24 feet. They have the frame assembled and the doors attached; they just need to complete the overhead filtering, and they’ll begin painting cars and trucks.
The class is currently preparing the 94’ Chevy for painting. They have the trim removed, have pulled a few dents, and are sanding the truck to prepare it for primer and paint.
“There were just a few hail dents that we used a little Bondo to fill,” Gardner said.
No shop is fully equipped without tools. The Auto Restore class has a full rolling cabinet of hand tools, $29,000 worth, and they were all purchased via grants.
So was the paint booth.
In the main District 24 shop, the students have access to a standard two-post lift and a massive four-post lift that can accommodate a school bus.
Behind the bus barn, facing the main campus, is a 2001 Freightliner semi-tractor.
“We bought this from Ryan Brothers Trucking in Thermopolis,” Gardner said. “They gave us a good deal on it.”
The program is very popular with senior boys who want to go into automotive, trucking, engineering, or simply want to learn how to repair their own vehicles and pick up a CDL. Jobs abound for skilled mechanics and drivers.
“Hopefully, we can get them started,” Gardner said. “We have to keep things separate. The transportation department costs are fully refundable by the state. The class is not.”
Another reason that the class is limited to seniors is the quarter-mile distance from the main high school. Students must drive to class.
They start the day at the bus barn, then drive down the hill for the rest of their classes. Being separated from the main building has its good and bad points. The good is the open working area of the bus barn. The bad is remembering they’re still part of the high school.
Students get involved in a project, as do the instructors, and time sometimes slips away.
“We’re late most every day,” Gardner said.