Rocket Academy blasts off

An innovative new school for technical education that once hung in the balance now has machinery and classroom space in a shiny new facility to call home.

Rocket Academy, the Cedar Grove-Belgium School District’s charter school, held an official opening of its building in Belgium last Thursday to a large crowd of enthusiastic supporters and partners, none more excited than the students who demonstrated some of the machines for visitors.

“I just like working with my hands. I know this program is pretty much hands-on instead of sitting in a classroom,” senior Brianna Ziehm of Plymouth said.

That’s the appeal for many of the academy’s students, along with participating in the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development’s Youth Apprenticeship program that pairs work experience with related coursework during the school day.

Senior Aiden Fear of Cedar Grove leaves at 4 a.m. two days per week to drive to HUI Manufacturing in Kiel to do sheet metal work.

“The whole way there I’m watching the world wake up around me. It’s amazing,” he said.

The academy, he said, may have saved his high school career.

“I don’t know that I would graduate without it,” Fear said.

The picture wasn’t always so rosy for the initiative, despite businesses and educators alike thinking it’s a good idea in a society that is craving employees in the trades.

“There were times we didn’t think we’d have a facility. We didn’t have students enrolled,” Rocket Academy Governance Board President Mike Dietrich said.

Dietrich is vice president of K-12 education and instructor training at LAB Midwest, a Mequon-based company that provides curriculum and equipment for education and industrial training.

Former Cedar Grove-Belgium Supt. Chad Brakke got the idea for such a charter school a few years ago when the district wanted to “reimagine” its high school technical education area, including dual-credit programming with colleges, as part of an upcoming referendum.

“We weren’t sure how to do that,” Brakke said.

Then School Board President Chad Hoopman connected Brakke with LAB Midwest, which had a booth at the state’s School Board Convention.

The School Board supported Brakke’s plan to start the charter school. Grants were applied for and some were received. Partnerships with Lakeshore Technical College were developed, and the Governance Board was formed.

Finding a building within the school district boundaries was another story. Promising location after location fell through until former president and owner of Krier Foods John Rassel got wind of the school last year. He proposed buying a piece of property and constructing a building on it with plans for the school to take ownership of the facility in a few years. Rocket Academy had a plan for its home.

“I’ll be honest. Prior to that, there were times I was thinking this may not work,” Brakke said.

Dietrich said positive persistence paid off.

“Two words seem to be absent from this entire village and community of people and entities that made this happen — no and can’t,” he said.

“Rocket Academy was built without those words. It seems like every time we face a challenge … we never hear those words. We always come together and we find a solution.”

The academy’s first eight students started in the high school’s tech-ed area and went to Lakeshore Technical College to use its facilities.

Before a permanent location was found, the academy hired David Friend, an agricultural teacher in Kiel, as its director.

Brakke said he and Friend “joked about flying the plane while we’re building it.”

Now, Brakke said, “it’s a dream come true” to see the facility open. He had left to become superintendent of the Baldwin-Woodville School District to be closer to his wife’s job in Minneapolis, and Cedar Grove-Belgium’s new superintendent Liz Freeman, is continuing support of the academy.

“The opportunities at Rocket Academy are limitless,” Freeman said.

For Friend, “It’s been kind of a rebirth for me as an educator — to do something totally new but also use some new skills from when I went through the principal program.”

The building is well lit and wide open, but work continues. Work tables and tool boxes need to be brought in. The welding area has enough stations for one-on-one learning, but it needs ventilation.

Still, meeting potential donors and students at the new facility is a big seller.

“The eyes just pop when people walk through,” Friend said.

“My vision is to have a simulated workplace, not a school, and I think this is a simulated workplace.”

The academy’s location near I-43 makes it easy to attract students from across the area. It has 24 students from multiple districts this year.

Port Washington’s Drake DeLisle said Port has some similar programs “just not to the scale of this,” as he showed how to bend sheet metal with a brake.

Fear said, “I really like the layout” of the building. “The open concept is really nice.”

Oostburg’s Luke Wendorf, an aspiring diesel technician, said his Youth Apprenticeship is “essentially learning while you’re making money.”

Cedar Grove-Belgium senior Grayson Prahl said, “I think it was a great opportunity to get ahead and secure a job right out of high school.”

Many students leave the academy with some kind of technical degree and/or certifications, opening career opportunities and the transfer of credits.

“This is not only an investment in education but an investment in the boundless potential in every student that has walked through these doors tonight,” Lakeshore College Associate Dean of Economic Development Lucas Dulmes said.