RCISD School Board Sees New Programs, Technology

RCHS instructor John Cox beside the school's new CNC router.

After its regular meeting Monday evening, the RCISD School Board was treated to a tour of the school’s latest initiatives and technology, and I was invited along. Improvements have been made and are still underway as the school enhances existing programs and has established two new ones, Edu-Make It and Edu-Weld, which will expand its STEM offerings to provide students with marketable skills and certifications. These two are divisions within a new company, Edu-Maker. 

In the ag building on Ninth Street by the bus shed, robotics instructor John Cox showed some of the new facilities and robotics equipment that students will be able to use in developing their programming skills and becoming more competitive in robotics competitions.

He also explained the school’s new Edu-Make It equipment that uses CNC (computer numeric control) technology. Students use AutoCAD software to design three-dimensional projects on the computer. Then, when finished, they send the design to one of the CNC machines that precisely reproduces the design on the desired material, whether it be wood, plastic, metal, or acrylic. 

The 3-D printers produce plastic objects, the CNC router works with wood and acrylic and the plasma cutter performs tasks on metal in much the same way as a cutting torch but with far greater precision. Students who learn to design using AutoCAD software can receive AutoCAD certification, which six students have already done and others are working on now.

3-D Printers.

Superintendent Kim Alexander told Board Members that the school with its equipment and expertise is ready and willing to act as a commercial enterprise to provide anything these machines can produce to customers who want or need it. Examples include signs, plaques, and wall hangings but can include machine parts and other objects of just about any shape or form.

After the tour of the robotics and CNC technology at Edu-Make It, the School Board went to the old Nitzsche blacksmith and welding shop on Broadway to see the other half of the school’s newest initiative, Edu-Weld, which provides students with comprehensive welding skills and certifications that meet national industrial certification standards. Certified students can perform high-demand welding tasks for needs in farming, ranching, oil and gas, wind energy, and other industrial activities.

Edu-Weld instructor Jessie Arguijo explains the program to Board Members.

Edu-Weld’s instructor, Jessie Arguijo, showed Board Members around the new facilities and explained both the equipment and the program. Besides instructing and training students, he is qualified to supervise their professional certification exams and provide business leadership for Edu-Weld commercial services at both the Broadway location and at mobile welding sites. He has extensive professional welding experience, gained at such companies and industries as STIC, Driver Pipeline, Watkins Co., ATI, Ref-Chem, Amerada Hess, and Lufkin-G.E.

The program’s curriculum emphasizes hands-on welding skills training, supplemented by computer-assisted simulation technology. Along with other students, Edu-Weld students take college courses and research projects and generally earn Western Texas College Associate’s Degrees along with their high school diplomas. They can earn their welding certifications in a number of areas via the AWS (American Welding Society), recognized by all industry sectors. These will assure them opportunities for higher salary potential, stronger employment demand, and better career stability.

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PLOWBOYS SCRIMMAGE FORSAN HERE TOMORROW

Fans will get a chance to see the 2018 Plowboys in action tomorrow, August 23, starting at 5:00pm, when they scrimmage the Forsan Buffaloes at Plowboy Field. Forsan is 2A, Division I, and with the new alignments are in District 3-2A-DI with Stamford, Hawley, Ozona, and Winters.

The Buffaloes have 5 starters on offense and 6 on defense returning from last year’s team, which was 3-7 overall and 0-4 in district. Players to watch are QB Kobe Richardson, who was a running back last year, and running back Dylan Kligora.

The Plowboys will be playing without quarterback Jayden Gonzales, who re-injured a foot that he initially broke earlier this summer in a work-related accident. He is due to have surgery on it Friday and will be out four to six weeks or so. In his absence, sophomore Barret Beal will be the Plowboys’ quarterback.

In their scrimmage with Ozona on Saturday, the offense played well, but the defense still needs work. Part of the problem against Ozona was that the Plowboys prepared for the spread while Ozona ran a wing-T.

This will be the Plowboys’ last scrimmage before they open the season next Friday night, August 31, with Hawley in Hawley.

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WEATHER REPORT: ANOTHER RAIN, FOR SOME

Sunday's sunset shortly after the shower.

On Sunday afternoon about six o’clock, a thunderstorm seemingly came out of nowhere and rained for twenty or thirty minutes. I had just finished watering my garden and returned to the house, and suddenly I heard this loud noise, which at first I thought must be something wrong with my air conditioner. But then I realized it was rain falling on my metal roof. 

I wound up getting .56”, which was enough to create a big puddle in the driveway. Later on, I found out the shower was pretty localized and that many areas outside town got no more than a sprinkle and some not even that. Kenny Landfried recorded an official .34” at his home in east Roscoe. Although the rainfall hasn’t been extensive the last couple of weeks, it has been enough to turn all the yellow grass in town green, and on the weekends I notice that lawn mowers are being used again. I’ve even been bitten by two or three mosquitoes.

Other than that Sunday shower, though, the weather this past week was typical for August. Highs were in the mid-nineties, lows in the mid-seventies, and skies sunny and partly cloudy. The high for the week was Friday’s 97°F and the low Sunday morning’s 69°.

The forecast is for more of the same. Today’s high should reach 95°, increasing to 98° tomorrow and 100° Friday, with the weekend highs and beginning of next week in the upper nineties. Lows will be in the mid-seventies, and there is no rain in the forecast.

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