Mathews High School’s carpentry program contains a mix of equipment … a few relatively modern pieces—such as a safety table saw where the blade stops as soon as it comes in contact with something other than wood—but most of the tools have been around since the 1950s and ’60s.
Last month, the division received a $125,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Education to give the carpentry program and the high school’s other Career and Technical Education programs a much-needed boost.
Mathews was one of only 24 school divisions from across the commonwealth to receive the $125,000 grants (totaling $3 million) in the grants announced July 6. Many of these competitive grants went to much larger school divisions in the Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads regions, so it was quite a coup for Mathews to make the final cut.
The grant will allow Mathews High to get the “latest, greatest and safest equipment,” said Randy Applegate, the division’s CTE coordinator. “We were very, very fortunate,” h...