St. Francis High School's manufacturing contract with MnDOT grows by $100K

The technical-education class that turned into a real company inside St. Francis High School has won a second manufacturing contract to make snowplow parts for the Minnesota Department of Transportation and has expanded its on-site factory.

The contract signed late last month is worth up to $100,000 and is on top of the $75,000 contract signed last year.

"That $100,000 could turn into more. I have the right to amend the contract," said Brian McDonald, MnDOT's transportation-materials supervisor. "I fully support this program. It's awesome."

The high school's technology-education department is in its third year running "Saints Manufacturing." It has a newly expanded 6,400-square-foot factory at the school that is run by student laborers, a student production manager, one teacher and two volunteers.

The school-based manufacturing program that started three years ago represents a fraction of the $133 million MnDOT spent to snowplow Minnesota streets and highways last year.

Even so, the school manufacturing program partnership is a first for MnDOT and just might help the chronic labor shortage and skills gap that so many of his other vendors complain about, McDonald said.

Officials with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) and the state's Department of Labor and Industry said they fully support job-training programs that help get young people better acquainted with technical fields.

The program not only teaches manufacturing. "They have a kid who is in charge of billing and getting quotes and figuring out how many jobs it takes to build this or that part. So this is teaching them business [too]. It's been a good learning experience on both sides of the aisle," McDonald said.

The program, in which students cut, mill and weld steel into "push-plates," "push-pull" shock absorbers, slide poles and other snowplow parts, may be one answer to addressing the state's labor shortage and technical skills gap, manufacturing workforce-development advocates said.

Saints Manufacturing won a significant jump in business after MnDOT lost its prison-manufacturing supplier two years ago. That's when the Minnesota Department of Corrections terminated its prisoner metal-fabrication program following the death of a guard at the Stillwater prison. The prisoners were in the middle of orders that still needed to be completed.

So MnDOT raced to find new vendors. About 11 commercial companies jumped in to help, but the state needed more. That's when the phone rang.

"It's been a great partnership with MnDOT in that they bring the work to us and we don't have to advertise. And we know it's going to snow and that their plow trucks will need supplies," so the students are guaranteed work and the chance to learn new skills through the school year, said Erik Trost, technical-education teacher at St. Francis.

St. Francis High bought six manual milling machines and six lathe machines so students could cut and drill metal. It also obtained a computerized CNC milling machine and is spreading the word to manufacturers that the school would love donations of more sophisticated machinery.

Over the summer, the school also doubled the size of the factory, from one classroom to two.

"It's kind of a big deal," Trost said. "I want to give students a reason to take my class and learn."