Supplying skilled workers to meet industry demand

Rocket Academy Director David Friend noted the challenge the Cedar Grove-Belgium School District charter school is trying to solve in one statement during a legislative tour of its facility on Monday.

He quoted a statistic from the 2025 Manufacturing Industry Outlook from Deloitte that said, “1.9 million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled over the next 10 years if talent challenges are not addressed.”

It’s why the academy started several years ago. Then Supt. Chad Brakke had heard from companies about the challenges they had trying to hire workers in skilled trades and their pleas for help from the education sector.

Brakke began forming partnerships with area industry leaders and a governance board. By the time he left to lead another district, the academy had an $800,000 charter school startup grant and eight students, and it soon had a new building in Belgium and a rent-to-own agreement from a generous donor. Brakke’s replacement, Supt. Elizabeth Freeman, supports the academy.

Board of Governance President Mike Dietrich, vice president of K-12 and instructor training for LAB Midwest, a Mequon-based provider of science, technology, engineering and math curriculum, said the initiative is unique as schools across the state try to address technical education.

“It’s kind of like the wild, wild west. Every school is trying to do what they can with what they’ve got,” he said.

“The idea is to provide a regional technical center to, honestly we say all the time, continue, not to compete. If someone in a nearby school district maxed out all their welding or manufacturing courses and they want more, that’s where Rocket Academy can come into play.”

The academy topped out with 40 students and 24 graduates last year, and this year enrollment is in the high 20s. The academy is open to juniors and seniors from any school district and offers pathways in precision machining, welding and metal fabrication, industrial maintenance and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) installation and maintenance.

Plans are to add electro-mechanical maintenance technician and advanced manufacturing engineering technology programs.

All academy students have youth apprenticeships and earn technical college credits and certifications. The school partners with Lakeshore College in Sheboygan and other area educational institutions.

Students on any given day are either learning at the academy — Friend said each day starts with “toolbox talk” and focuses on precision measuring, an industry priority — working at their youth apprenticeship or touring one of many area companies the Academy partners with. Friend said there’s a waiting list of businesses wanting to let students in the door.

Students are taught core subjects differently. In the drills and saws class, they learn how to drill through copper or brass compared to steel, earning science credits.

“That’s the periodic table coming to life,” Friend said.

Precision measuring covers math, and interpersonal and communication skills count for English and social studies.

Many academy students find school more engaging and are happier and more motivated than being in a traditional education setting, they said.

“If I was in normal school right now, I’d be sleeping at my desk,” Daniel Eischen of Cedar Grove said.

Max Wulff of Sheboygan Falls said he likes that the academy is open to hands-on work and “you learn a lot of stuff that you don’t learn in normal school.”

Senior Sophia Robishaw of Belgium likes “the hands-on learning and the opportunity to go to Lakeshore.”

Upon graduation, she already has a job waiting for her at the mechanical contractor J.M. Brennan Inc. in Milwaukee.

Although area companies support the school and have donated some of the equipment and legislators have expressed support for the it and its mission, sustaining Rocket Academy has become a challenge.

The academy’s grant sunsets in a year and a half, and Friend said he learned right after the tour that a supplemental funding request from the U.S. Department of Education was denied.

The academy’s Board of Governance is already planning to embark on a capital campaign. Those financial goals, Friend said, may be adjusted as a result of the funding denial.

The fact that the academy’s students must open enroll and become Cedar Grove-Belgium students presents another challenge at a time when the birthrate is slowing and school districts are trying to attract students. State aid follows students to the districts they attend.

Dietrich said conversations are happening around developing a consortium model to share students rather than have them switch districts.

The academy, at 255 Lakeview Dr., Belgium is holding an open house from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29.

For more information, visit www.rocketacademywi.org.