SALINEVILLE, Ohio – Utica Shale Academy Superintendent Bill Watson said his school services 9th through 12th grade students up to the age of 21 who are credit deficient but interested in learning a skilled trade. 

“So many options for kids in the trades or you know people re-careering themselves and refining themselves,” said Watson.

Watson said for a long time there was a negative connotation when it comes to welding and trade careers, but attitudes are changing.  

“The truth of the matter is, is that these men and women could make great family-sustaining wages, and to me,” said Watson. 

Levi Bryarley, a Wellsville native, graduates this spring after four years in the program.

“The thing that really appealed to me about it was working with my hands. I knew that I was gonna be able to do that,” said senior Bryarley. 

At the Utica Shale Academy, he’s learned pneumatics, hydraulics, programming and welding and currently works as an assistantship at WD Foundry in Wellsville. 

Bryarley said he’ll continue to send out job applications. 

“I’d say probably being an electrician or full-time welding,” said Bryarley about potential future careers.

Watson, who spent more than a decade in power generation, said he’s excited about the school’s future, a $2.35 million grant received through the Ohio DOD Governor’s Office of Appalachia — part of the Appalachia Community grant program.  

That funds a portion of a $4.8 million building on East Main Street, with more than five-thousand square feet of classrooms for heavy equipment operation expected to be complete next summer. 

Watson said while you do sometimes find a cycle of generational poverty in Appalachia, he believes the Shale Academy’s mission is to end that stigma. 

“People come complacent. I didn’t grow up with much, I don’t need much. And we’re finding people that are breaking that and every parent wants to see their kids do better than them, so you know it’s always great when that happens,” said Watson.