Cranston academy develops interest in construction field
The Laborers’ International Union had a problem: Its membership was aging, an issue compounded by the fact that fewer high school graduates were going to work in the construction industry. And a greater need for construction workers was looming on the horizon.
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According to the R.I. Department of Labor and Training, in the 10-year period of 2002 to 2012, there will be a need for nearly 1,300 construction laborers to fill new jobs or account for worker attrition.
In response, Armand Sabitoni had an idea: If the students would not come to the industry, bring the industry to them.
Now, a four-year-old high school in Cranston is preparing the future bridge builders, highway workers and commercial construction personnel for a safe and productive transition into the real world – complete with the benefits of a union job.
Last June, the first class of 15 students graduated from the Construction Career Academy – a charter school that is a partnership of the local Laborers’ union and the Cranston public schools – realizing a dream that Sabitoni, general secretary and treasurer of the Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 271, first conceived in the mid-1990s.
Currently, eight of the graduates have jobs and three others are in college. “The opportunities for good union jobs in the construction industry are continuing to grow and these students will have a jump on the competition with experience in the field as well as a high school education,” said Sabitoni.
Michael A. Traficante, director of government affairs for the New England Laborers’ Health and Safety Fund, chairman of the school’s board of directors and former mayor of Cranston, said the idea of the high school was to reach out and make students aware of the opportunities available in the construction field and then provide a path to realize their goals.
“The kids who graduate from this school have a tremendous opportunity to go directly into an apprenticeship program and become journeymen,” Traficante said. Each year, the 900 eighth-graders in Cranston take part in an orientation session to introduce them to the school, which maintains average class sizes of between 10 and 15 students. The school also made presentations to parents, school committee members and school staffs in Johnston, Scituate and Glocester and there are currently nine students from those communities enrolled in the school. All the teachers are members of the Cranston Teachers Alliance Local 1704. There also are four trained construction professionals, each with 15 years’ experience in the field, who give specialized hands-on instruction.
Michael J. Silvia, director of the school, said it fills a niche in training students in heavy and highway construction. The 10 career and technical schools in the state primarily focus on residential construction, he said.
The academy uses the standard high school subjects with the students, but the presentation is the difference, Silvia said.
The curriculum is centered on problem-based learning. Each quarter the class is given a project – which forms the basis of every subject studied.
In the fall, half of the school worked on a project looking at road decay, while the other half worked on bridge development. In the case of the road decay project, the students studied the chemicals that make up asphalt and the substances used to treat the roads and the history of road development in history, and calculated the dimensions of a road in math. Finally, the students completed a written report in English and a PowerPoint presentation in a computer class, mirroring what they might do in the real world to garner a construction contract.
“In most schools a model bridge will be about three to five feet made out of Popsicle sticks, but at our school the bridge is 60 feet, made of concrete and is a replica of a bridge in the state of Rhode Island,” said Silvia.
The curriculum is rigorous enough to allow the graduates to go on to college.
Another 30 students – of the 132 enrolled in the school – are expected to graduate in June. Eleven of the prospective graduates are planning to apply to college and pursue studies in architecture and engineering, as well as other paths.
All freshmen take part in a career exploration program for the first year and the construction technology program starts in the sophomore year.
“[The school] is not only providing an alternative for kids at the secondary level, it is providing us with a future work force, which is critical,” said Traficante.
