Students from Eagle Ridge New Tech High School and Ponderosa Middle School recently completed a hands-on construction project, building a new concrete sidewalk that enhances access at the corner of the Eagle Ridge campus.
Click Here to be directed to the KFCS Facebook To See A Full Photo Gallery
The project brought together all five of Eagle Ridge’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) construction classes, with a good amount of the labor completed by eighth-grade Ponderosa students. Over the course of nearly a month, students hand-dug roughly 65 to 80 feet of sidewalk using shovels and wheelbarrows, removed compacted dirt and gravel, laid and compacted a gravel base, and helped set the concrete forms.
“They spent the better part of a month hand digging everything out,” David Parker, Eagle Ridge New Tech’s CTE Construction and Advanced Mathematics instructor, said. “It was really hard work, but they did great.”
The project marked the students’ first experience working with concrete.
“Not a single student had any experience with concrete whatsoever,” Parker said. “That’s one of the reasons I was so thankful for Modoc Contracting because they brought something new for our students.”
Modoc Contracting Company donated the time of two professional concrete finishers to assist with the pour, including Raul Baza Martinez, the company’s lead concrete specialist. The donation helped ensure the concrete was properly placed and finished, an effort Parker estimates would have cost thousands of dollars otherwise.
“With two guys for eight hours, they donated at least $2,000 worth of labor,” Parker said. “I don’t want to do the estimate but if they had done the entire project themselves, it probably would have been somewhere around $18,000.”
The sidewalk was built in multiple sections, including a 65-foot stretch connecting to the city sidewalk along Willow Avenue, a 14-foot section that now provides access to a previously unreachable school entrance, and an additional path replacing a dirt trail students regularly used between buildings.
“There was no sidewalk there before,” Parker said. “It was grass and dirt mixed with gravel, which made it really fun for them to dig out during the project.”
Parker said the support from Modoc Contracting was especially meaningful because of his past experience with the company as he previously worked with Modoc for five years and still maintains strong relationships there.
“I’m a little biased because I did work with them; even though they did not want me to stop working there, we still get along great,” Parker said. “But for them to donate that time to the school, I felt really appreciated when they did that. For a company to donate that kind of time and expertise to our students, it meant a lot.”
