Staff photo / Bob Coupland Lordstown High School eighth graders Bella Probst, left, Lexi Noe and Sydney Fellows put finishing touches on a red barn to be used for books that students in the carpentry class completed for the elementary school.

LORDSTOWN — Eighth-grade students at Lordstown High School are not only learning new skills through a new carpentry program, but have completed projects to benefit the school district.

Kenneth Iser, instructor of the program, said the carpentry class is through the school’s career exploration program “Lead for Change.” The 18-week course has half the eighth graders in the class the first semester and the second half of the students in the second semester.

“The students will learn carpentry skills and learn how to apply them, but they also learn leadership skills. The students identified a community problem or issue and decided on promoting literacy within their community. One way to do that was to have an outdoor library where students or families could come and find books they are interested in,” Iser said.

He said the 13 first semester eighth graders created an outdoor Book Barn where books are placed inside for the public to borrow. Plans are for the Book Barn to be unveiled this spring at the Lordstown school property.

Iser said plans are for it to be placed near the entrance of the elementary school, as well as a small bench next to it.

He said he also teaches carpentry classes to high school students through a program through the Trumbull County Educational Service Center, but the eighth-grade program is in its pilot year.

Iser said the “Lead for Change” program is geared to middle school students.

“We wanted to develop an interest in students in the building trades program,” Iser said.

Bella Probst said she and the other students learned how to measure for cutting the wood to construct the Book Barn under the guidance of Iser. Probst said she liked the planning stages of the project.

Addison Dotson said she likes the idea of the Book Barn where people can borrow a book and leave another book for someone else to read. She said she liked sanding the wood and then painting the barn as part of the project.

Iser said the Book Barn is the size of a kitchen cabinet with elementary books to be placed inside. Lordstown Elementary librarian Genevieve Gigliotti is providing the books for the Book Barn.

In addition, Iser and the students put together a bench that will be next to the Book Barn. Under Iser’s supervision, students learned to use drills, sanders and other building tools.

Iser said the second semester class is reviewing project ideas and may do something for the high school property. The students spend their other semester attending other career exploration classes instructed by staff.

“The overall goal of the career exploration was to develop some interest in the building trades program. I hope they have learned some new skills that they can use for the rest of their lives. There may be some who want to have a career in the building trades so these gave them a chance to see what is involved. This is a career field where there is a need right now,” Iser said.

Lordstown High School Principal James Vivo said the carpentry class and other career exploration classes being offered to eighth graders show them life-learning skills

“This lets the junior high students see what types of jobs are available to them with the right skills,” Vivo said.

He said Lordstown Village is a blue collar community, so to learn any new skill in high school will help students when they select a career or occupation.