NEW JOB DESCRIPTION: Brad Thompson is one of the school’s resident tech staff. he will start teaching Computer Repair/Technical Support next year.

Starting next year, the school will offer a new course called Computer Repair/Technical Support. This class is designed to fill a void in the technical education offered by this school, namely,  how to physically repair computers. The school board construction approval request describes the class this way: “Students could earn credit for learning how to work on hardware of computers in addition to possibly some software.”

Computer Repair/Technical Support is going to be taught by Brad Thompson, one of the school’s resident tech staff. He summed up the course material as “more of a focus on hardware and troubleshooting, helping users fix their problems.”

“[The course] should include basic computer repair, and also operating system diagnostics,” said Sam Mercier’16.

The school already offers courses in programming and digital citizenship, but until, now, nothing in the realm of hard technical repair. According to Mr. Shriner, the class will  be a consistent, every semester class.

“That’d be a really good idea, because it’s [computer repair] a good thing to know. I mean, not even in the workplace. You have a problem at home, you know how to fix it,” said Alec Friedman ’16.

“We have a lot of computers and the tech crew sometimes can’t handle all of them at once.  If we just have random students that know how to deal with stuff it’s helpful,” said Mercier.  Mercier does work with the tech team from time to time.  “It’s a fun time,” Mercier said.  “We help them image computers or random stuff like that,” Mercier said.

Some other students have expressed a desire for this kind of education. Thompson said that “several people have said that it would be good to have something like this.”

The class will be offered in a new tech lab off the Commons, to be built during the summer construction. Though the principle cause for the construction is security changes, a secondary driving force is the need for a new tech lab.  The new lab should serve as a home for this new course and will increase the visibility of our school’s technical department.

The school board request described the class as “for students who have an interest in actual hands-on computer education as opposed to programming and other courses currently offered in business.”

“I think it will be popular but it will take a couple of years to catch on,” said Mercier.