The Integrated Machining and Engineering Program instructor Tony Spallino was honored to be asked to speak at the Ohio Valley Regional HTEC Educator’s Conference at Sinclair Community College in Dayton over the summer.  

Our two-man team delivered an outstanding presentation on how we successfully increased enrollment while the participation trend in the rest of the state was declining.  The presentation outlined how our Machine Trades Improvement Program was designed to do three things: increase enrollment, update our program curriculum to fit the Tech Prep Model, and to re-design our facility to emulate the high end of the industry served.

We addressed the lab by painting the walls and ceiling and installed an epoxy flooring system in order to emulate the high end of the businesses that hire our graduates.  We installed 6 computer workstations with CNC Milling Software, installed a table top CNC Router and continue to use a Smartboard for classroom instruction.  In addition to addressing the lab, we needed to address the name of the program.  Although the former name, Machine Trades, was successful in the past and was accurate in describing the program, it did not connect to the sophomores and their parents.  It did not describe the  total content of the program.  The new name, Integrated Machining and Engineering, ties the industry to the curriculum while informing parents that their student will be involved in engineering applications with real world problem solving.  That real world problem solving includes not only the automotive industry (as in the past) but also the expanding biomedical industry.  Our local employers are diversifying their talents to serve many industries including biomedical devices such as joint replacement, surgical tools and prosthetics.

Mr. Spallino and Mr. Bialorucki addressed the need to always be involved in the community.  Our IM&E students are involved in the holiday food basket program put on by the City of Oregon/Oregon Recreation.  In addition, a few senior students were involved in a project to improve a racing cycle for a local man living with cerebral palsy. This project was highlighted in the several local papers, internet news sites and even made it to the Chanel 11 News.

Our improvement plan ended with an idea that was new to the state and has since been delivered throughout the state to superintendents, directors and teachers in all career & tech program.  The use of YouTube to market our program to students and to parents has proven to be extremely effective!  Nick Amrhein of 3byOne Media produced a 5 minute info-commercial to be used to share our valued program with parents and students.  We have found that this initial video has been used to inform state legislators of the importance of career and tech education and most recently was used in a graduate level course at the University of Toledo as an example of best practices in marketing.

One component that is often overlooked is the dedication of the instructor.  Mr. Spallino is active with his industry advisory committee and works hard to make sure his students are ready to work for them.  This dedication has resulted in 100% placement of graduates for over 10 years!  His dedicated work directing students in sharpening their critical thinking skills as well as the applied use of trigonometry, algebra and geometry has produced highly valued employees for local employers.

Mr. Spallino is only one of the dedicated staff members at Clay High School.  We are proud of our programs, our students and our staff here at Clay High School.