PARIS — More than 20 years after an Oxford Hills Technical School classroom was outfitted for a plumbing program with a concrete floor, stubbed plumbing and flues in the ceiling, the first group of students is learning the trade.
The program is funded in part by a $750,000 settlement between the Maine Attorney General’s Office and Bath Fitter, the 30-year-old refitting company.
The class gives students “real-world practice,” instructor Tom Cassidy said. “We do it just like the industry. It’s a hands-on application.”
The program is one of only four — all startups — at technical high schools in Maine. The others are in Farmington, Lewiston and Biddeford. All four programs are using Bath Fitter settlement money to support their programs.
The program costs less than $100,000 to start, and also receives funding from the state, Oxford Hills Technical School Director Shawn Lambert said.
“If you’re going to make a go of the program, you have to do it the right way,” he said.
Nigel Norton, career and technology specialist with the Maine Department of Education, said last year that need for the program was determined by canvassing employers, trends in the occupation and surveying students.
“Plumbing wasn’t all that sexy, but $80,000 a year was” to the tech school students, Lambert said.
In January 2016, Lambert and Oxford Hills Technical School building trades instructor Dan Daniels met with a group of local professionals to plan the course work. The group included master plumbers Harley Johnson, Richard Moody and Ed Smith, plumber’s helper Lynn Mason, Otisfield Code Enforcement Officer Richard St. John and plumbing wholesaler Brian Compton.
Cassidy was hired as the instructor, students were recruited and the program was off and running in the fall.
“The kids love it,” Lambert said. “Tom has a lot to do with it. He knows the trade and how to teach it.”
Seven students have signed up for next year’s program and six have signed on as a second choice. Recruitment is ongoing.
The class is small to allow, in part, one-on-one instruction and to ensure safety, Cassidy said.
The program also allows students a “short track” to the plumber’s license.
Last year, St. John, a member of the advisory committee and a member of the state Plumbers’ Examining Board, said it appears to take an apprentice to the trade who has no formal class time an average of three times to pass the master’s license test, even after having 4,000 hours of on-the-job training.
“Safe to say (that) trade school graduates pass with fewer attempts,” he said.
Student Logan Tripp said he was inspired to join the program by his grandfather, who was a plumber, and because of the money a plumber can earn.
“He told me it’s a good trade to be in,” Tripp said.
The success of the program is already evident.
One student said he will attend Southern Maine Community College in the fall to get his plumber’s license. Another has been assured a job in the plumbing trade with a master plumber upon graduation in June.
In addition to plumbing, Cassidy said, the program offers students an opportunity to look at offshoots from traditional plumber jobs, including mechanical engineering and business administration.
“Next thing they know, they’re driving that $12,000 snowmobile,” Cassidy said.
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