Middle school trade program builds gazebo for OPA

Program expands in fall to three classes

By Matthew Nash • June 11, 2025 5:30 am
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash Teacher Bill McFarlen and Sequim Middle School seventh and eighth grade students in his new Core Plus Instruction industrial arts classes celebrate the June 2 ribbon-cutting for a gazebo at Olympic Peninsula Academy that the SMS students built. They worked on the structure throughout the school year.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash Teacher Bill McFarlen and Sequim Middle School seventh and eighth grade students in his new Core Plus Instruction industrial arts classes celebrate the June 2 ribbon-cutting for a gazebo at Olympic Peninsula Academy that the SMS students built. They worked on the structure throughout the school year.

In its first year, Sequim Middle Schoolers set a high bar, or truss, for the new industrial arts Core Plus Instruction program.

Through the school year, 60 students in two sections of the class built picnic tables, hobby horses, tool sheds, benches, and as their major project a gazebo outside Olympic Peninsula Academy.

“I loved every minute of it,” said eighth grader Lucas Seelye.

He and classmates were given certificates of appreciation on June 2 for their efforts by OPA principal Ned Floeter, who called their work “awesome stuff.”

“It was great to see you not only working over here, but growing in your skill sets, and your confidence that you demonstrated every day,” Floeter said.

“I know that our kids here at OPA are already starting to use this place because they like to eat their lunches out here, but they also like to do some classes out here.”

OPA students also sent thank you letters to the middle schoolers, Floeter said.

Core Plus Instruction teacher Bill McFarlen said students started work on the gazebo last November with Seelye saying they worked on it as often as they could in class.

To construct the gazebo, the Port of Port Angeles provided a grant worth about $2,800 for various supplies, Hartnagel Building Supply and supplier OrePac Building Products donated about $4,000 worth of flooring, and the Sequim Sunrise Rotary Club donated funds for tool belts, tools and safety equipment.

All the organizations were recognized for their contributions.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ A new tool shed and gazebo were constructed by Sequim Middle School students in the new Core Plus Instruction program. It’s so popular, it will expand from two to three class sections in the 2025-26 school year, school staff said.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ A new tool shed and gazebo were constructed by Sequim Middle School students in the new Core Plus Instruction program. It’s so popular, it will expand from two to three class sections in the 2025-26 school year, school staff said.

McFarlen said in an interview they received so much flooring, they have enough for another project.

Floeter emphasized to the students the importance of collaboration between nonprofits, community leaders and industry leaders “because one day, you might be working for a Hartnagel Building Supply or you might be running a Hartnagel Building Supply.”

The gazebo, and a shed also built and donated by the middle school class, sit next to a greenhouse that OPA purchased through a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory grant last year.

McFarlen said Core Plus Instruction has covered many industrial trades through the school year and he’s found it to be “a hit.”

“I think it’s a great program,” he said.

“I took industrial arts when I graduated from (Sequim High School) and my dream was to be an industrial arts teacher.”

While there currently isn’t a similar program in the high school, McFarlen said his agricultural classes will have some construction elements in them that current and future students can learn.

Due to its popularity, Core Plus Instruction will increase from two to three sections for the 2025-26 school year, middle school staff said.

While watching his students receive their certificates of appreciation McFarlen said “these kids are awesome.”

Throughout the school year, they built 15 large picnic tables and 10 smaller tables to learn angles and attribute those skills to other building projects, McFarlen said. Two of the tables were donated to OPA for the gazebo.

McFarlen’s plan for next school year is to build a rolling storage unit for the Sequim FFA’s food trailer.

Seelye said using what he’s learned from his dad and in class, he wants to pursue an industrial trade, either as a lineman or lumberjack.

“I have a lot of memories and made a lot of friends along the way,” he said of Core Plus Instruction.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Eighth graders Saydey Cronin and Madelyn Bower stand by a gazebo they and 58 other students helped build through their Sequim Middle School Core Plus Instruction industrial arts class. The friends were two of a handful of girls to participate in the building classes, they said.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Eighth graders Saydey Cronin and Madelyn Bower stand by a gazebo they and 58 other students helped build through their Sequim Middle School Core Plus Instruction industrial arts class. The friends were two of a handful of girls to participate in the building classes, they said.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Ned Floeter, Olympic Peninsula Academy principal, speaks to a crowd of Sequim School District staff and students during a ribbon cutting for a new gazebo built by middle schoolers for Olympic Peninsula Academy. “It was great to see you not only working over here, but growing in your skill sets, and your confidence that you demonstrated every day,” Floeter said of the middle schoolers.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Ned Floeter, Olympic Peninsula Academy principal, speaks to a crowd of Sequim School District staff and students during a ribbon cutting for a new gazebo built by middle schoolers for Olympic Peninsula Academy. “It was great to see you not only working over here, but growing in your skill sets, and your confidence that you demonstrated every day,” Floeter said of the middle schoolers.