Ohio Makes a ‘Max’ Investment in Our Future
If you’re looking for a new shop employee, Cleveland, OH may just be the city with the answer for you. Up until now it may have seemed that all the good employees either had jobs or had retired. Here is what Cleveland did to solve the problem of “lots of job openings and no qualified machinists or tradesmen.” August 19th of this year marked the opening of the first of three new high school/trade schools in our area since the Max Hayes trade school opened in 1957. The old Max Hayes School was no longer technologically up to date, was in disrepair and was located in a small residential area. Rather than just refurbishing Max Hayes, a completely new facility was built on an old abandoned industrial site. At a cost of $48M, paid for by government grants and a voter- approved bond issue, the new facility is smaller than the original and built to handle 800 students. The original Max Hayes could handle 1,475. It is a two-story building with classrooms on the second floor and 11 large workshop bays on the first floor. The school has separate labs/bays for trades such as auto collision repair, automotive technology, engineering, welding, manufacturing design, precision machining, and software development. Students have equipment at their disposal that isn’t available at some high tech companies. They will come out of there with state-of-the-art training and be able to “hit the ground running.” The public had a chance to view the new school in late summer and it was a huge success. For more information contact the Max Hayes school principal, Ms. Kelly Wittman, at the Cleveland School District. For more information, visit www.clevelandme- troschools.org/maxshayes.

Jim Kovach
Kovach & Associates -Performance Engine Building
Parma, OH
November, 2015