After more than 16 years serving as Cook County I.S.D. 166 technology coordinator John (Jake) Jacobsen retired from the school district on Thursday, August 16. Jake, a 1970 CCHS graduate, plans on writing a book about his adventures in Alaska where he lived for 20 years. “I will also do some computer work around the community and spend a lot of time with my granddaughter Nora,” he said. This fall Jake will coach Pony League football and he plans to add some camping and fishing into his spare time as well. He won’t be missing from the community, but he will be missed at school. Staff photo/Brian Larsen
With two weeks to go before school starts, work is at a feverish pitch at I.S.D. 166.
Tom Nelson, director of maintenance and his crew have been pulling some long hours, as have the construction crews working on the new science and culinary arts spaces.
Not only is the school’s maintenance crew getting the school ready to open for classes, they have taken on the added effort of cleaning the YMCA, said Nelson.
Meanwhile, Nelson said the Max Gray Construction crew who is building the new science and culinary arts rooms have been working very hard. “You don’t see anyone from that crew standing around.”
The three science rooms will total 4,400 square feet, said Nelson, adding that culinary arts, when completed, will total 2,800 square feet.
Plans are for the science rooms to be ready for the start of school. Culinary arts is scheduled to be completed September 24, but the work to enclose the space is ongoing, and the interior is still roughed in, so that might be pushing it a bit.
Construction workers are racing the clock to finish the outside section of the culinary arts space that was added onto the school this summer. Inside, a team has spent the last three months building new space for the science rooms, which will be finished by the start of school. As for culinary arts students, they will inherit a great new place to learn the art of cooking, but it will be several weeks after school begins before the culinary arts rooms are completed. Staff photo/Brian Larsen
Once finished, the two facilities will feature (mostly) brand new equipment and allow CCHS students to learn in state-of-the-art classrooms.
Additionally, the culinary arts program will work with Hibbing Community College and Cook County Higher Education so that students, who wish, can earn college credits.
Funds to pay for the two new facilities came from the bond funds approved by voters in the November 2016 election.
To date, voter-approved bond funds have paid for the following: a new bus garage; five 77-passenger buses (with trade in from old buses); a new plow truck; an eight-passenger vehicle for students and staff; new floors for the elementary gym, cafeteria, and classrooms; the roofing project for the Sawtooth gym. And new cameras in the school, upgraded radios for buses, technology improvements to the school’s servers, a new website, new employee time clock, a new website and added cloud controllers.
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