Parke Heritage High School celebrated the grand opening of its new state-of-the-art automotive technology building with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday. Positioned at the rear of the school, this modern facility is set to become a cornerstone for the Wabash River Career and Technical Education program.
The building boasts eight spacious work bays, providing an exceptional environment for students to engage in hands-on learning and acquire a variety of automotive skills.
Classes will be taught by Ed Kutch and Corey Newnum in the new classroom area that is a part of the building. Kutch’s experience at Chrysler Motors and Newnum’s dual background in business and his family’s auto shop provide a unique blend of perspectives that will benefit students.
“Kutch and Newnum bring a wealth of knowledge to the classroom,” said Craig Newby, director of the WRCTE program. “This new facility will help our program grow and will help prepare our students for the workforce. Auto mechanics are a high demand career and this class will help prepare our Parke and Vermillion County students for high wage, high demand positions upon graduation.”
There are a record number of 60 students enrolled in the program including 20 students enrolled in the second year program. The WRCTE program has a partnership with Ivy Tech that provides students with the opportunity to obtain free college credit for enrollment in this class.
“The new facility will allow us to be more realistic in mirroring an actual auto shop. The ability for our students to be able to spread out more and have the ability to have hands-on time with the tools will be a tremendous benefit,” Kutch said.
The students in the classes will have the opportunity to learn 80% of light maintenance tasks that a car dealership performs. These include oil changes, tire work, brake work, water pumps, alternator and more. The class also has donated cars that they use for pulling engines and other such tasks.
Newnum also hopes to incorporate the business end of owning your own auto shop into the class.
A new tool that will be introduced is an alignment machine. Kutch stated that this new tool will make a big difference in their learning process. The alignment machine was purchased for the class as the result of a $109,000 grant that was provided by the Commission for Higher Education.
WRCTE students are able to attend the class beginning with the junior year. Kutch works with the students to meet them at their learning level as some students enter the class with only knowing the basic tools to other students who have been working on cars at home for many years.
The school district has been saving money for this new facility since 2018, according to NCP Schools Superintendent Mike Schimpf. The project was completed by krM Architecture, Kramer Company and Strode Construction.
Schimpf explained that he is excited for students to access cutting edge technology and looks forward to the many opportunities this will provide students.
The opening of this facility marks a new era of opportunity and growth for Parke Heritage High School and its students.
For more information about the automotive technology program, contact Craig Newby at cnewby@wrcte.org.
