Two Herbert Hoover High School students delivered and installed the bench for the Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia (ICA) on Friday. With the help of several Herbert Hoover High School faculty members, the students brought bench pieces from their shop classroom to the West Virginia Judicial Tower where the ICA will hold court.
The school won the bid to produce the benches, podiums, and tabletops for the main ICA courtroom in Charleston and five satellite courtrooms. The students, who are being paid $15 an hour for their summer work, are also producing carved wooden ICA seals for each bench.
The main courtroom bench is made of walnut and the satellite courtroom benches are cherry. The satellite courtroom benches are much smaller and are designed to hold 55- inch televisions that will link the courtrooms in Grant, Lewis, Morgan, Raleigh, and Wetzel Counties to the main courtroom in Charleston. On Friday, the students also delivered two benches for the satellite courtrooms. Court staff will install them. The remainder of the furniture is still under construction. Students Lane Ramsey and Josh Stuart said they have enjoyed working on the ICA project. Although neither expects to become a full-time furniture maker, “it’s definitely a plan B for me,” said Stuart, who is set to join the Marines when he graduates in 2023. Ramsey, also a rising senior, wants to be a heavy equipment operator like his father. “If our work slows down in the winter, you and I could open up a cabinet shop,” Ramsey told Stuart. ICA Chief Judge Dan Greear, ICA Judge Charles Lorensen, and their staffs stopped in shortly after the furniture pieces arrived.
The students and their shop teacher, Tim Meyer, laid out the pieces on the floor of the soon-to-be-courtroom like a jigsaw puzzle waiting to be completed. “I think it’s amazing they have been able to pull this off and do such a wonderful job,” said Chief Judge Greear. “The workmanship is beautiful.” Herbert Hoover Vice Principal Jason Cantrell, Counselor Matthew Emch, and Driver Education Teacher Jerry Legg helped with the delivery. “These kids do great work,” Cantrell said. “These are just two of many who have come through our program and built things for the state. They love to work. It’s rewarding.” “They stay very busy.
They always have a project going. It seems every day there’s a load of lumber being delivered,” Cantrell said. Since a 2016 flood destroyed the school, the shop classroom has been six portable classrooms combined to make one large space on the “campus” of Herbert Hoover, a collection of portables next to Elkview Middle School. A new school is under construction and is expected to open in the fall of 2023. The new shop area will be twice as big as the one Meyer has now. Meyer and his students have been getting a lot of media attention for their work on the ICA furniture. They even did a phone interview with the Woodworking Network. “We’ve had a great time doing this,” said Meyer, who has been teaching shop at Herbert Hoover High School for 23 years.
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