Medina’s home repair and maintenance class teaches practical skills to students

MEDINA, Ohio – Whether they are on a college prep path or planning to join the career center or workforce after graduation, many Medina High Schools students have the shared goal of one day owning a home and Tim Bracken’s home repair and maintenance class can help prepare them for that challenge.

“We have offered the class for a few years now. I think we started offering it a little before COVID,” Bracken said. “Our old principal had asked us what classes we were not teaching that we thought would be valuable to students and I threw out the idea of a home repair and maintenance class. I didn’t really think anything would come of it, but the school did a survey and kids really responded to it.”

Bracken said he teaches four units of the semester-long class each fall and three units in the spring. He said there are typically 20 students in each class. It is a course that can be taken freshman year all the way to senior year.

“Since it isn’t a required class, I can shape the curriculum to cover what I think is important,” Bracken said. “My daughter who is now 28 and is a young homeowner has actually given me a lot of great ideas. Most kids five to seven years out of high school aren’t going to be able to afford a brand new home and will realistically purchase a fixer upper, so during the class we learn how to do trouble shooting and look at the common things that could possibly go wrong inside of a house.”

Bracken said students in his class will build a frame and then learn how to wire an outlet, a switch and a light.

“That is the first part of the project and then you can’t have it open so we put drywall on it and then we paint the drywall on the frame,” he said. “So basically you are learning a few different skills in one project.”

Bracken said he also covers plumbing, allowing the students to learn the internal parts of faucets and teaches them how to trouble shoot during a leak.

“A lot of times with a leak there could be some small parts that need replaced that cost just a couple of dollars,” he said.

Bracken also teaches students how to use different hand tools and power tools safely and talks to them about the tools they might want to have in their house once they become homeowners.

“We also try to do a fun little project where they make something they can take home,” he said. “Last year it was a spice rack. We have made shelves and bird houses. I hope it is something they can take home and then remember this class.”

Bracken said it is satisfying to hear about students who have put to use what they have learned in his class.

“I met a dad at a parent/teacher conference who told me his daughter realized she was having an issue with her toilet and when she checked, she saw the flapper wasn’t making a seal so she went and bought a new flapper for the toilet,” he said. “I had a mom email me that her son wanted to replace an outlet with one where he could plug in a USB so he turned off the breaker, took off the old one and wired up the new one and it worked like a charm.”