Gering high school students help build new preschool classrooms

Preschoolers started their first day at Gering Public Schools in the panhandle on Wednesday. Some of the students will soon be playing and learning in a new space, thanks to work from some of the high school students.

The students in the construction trades program spent the past year building four new preschool classrooms. The project will be finished in a few weeks for the preschoolers to enjoy.

Neveah Laeger, a recent graduate of Gering Public Schools who was a part of that program, said she wanted to give the younger students more opportunities than she had at their age.

“I started preschool late, and I could have started early,” Laeger said. “I wish I would have started a little earlier because I feel like I would have been a little bit more book smart than I am now.”

While the high schoolers were constructing the building, the preschoolers would watch from the nearby playground. Laeger said they liked to ask questions.

“There was a group of girls, and they came up to me and asked what I was doing there and why I wasn't in a dress and, like, playing with dolls,” Laeger said. “I said because I didn't feel like it, so, it was kind of weird. I don't know if it was odd to see a girl on a construction site, but I guess it was just something different.”

Laeger said she learned more than just construction during the process. She improved her time management and found a family.

“I think of these guys like my brothers when I'm on the job site,” Laeger said. “We give each other a hard time, but if we're having a bad day, they'll pick me up, and I know I've done countless runs to go get food so they're not all hangry all the time.”

Laeger isn’t the only one who enjoyed her time on the construction crew. Jose Barrios, another recent graduate from Gering Public Schools, said their teacher on the site helped him become more outgoing.

“I've learned how to talk a lot more because I used to not talk,” Barrios said. “Well, I mean, like talking to [Travis] Gable, like he says a lot of stuff that makes you laugh, and for me personally, it just makes me think about what I have to say next to keep up with him and having it on a roll.”

Barrios is excited to see the finished product in action. He’s looking forward to leaving his mark on the community.

“Someday I'll be able to come back to town just for a visit, and I'll be able to drive by and say, ‘I built that,’” he said.

Building the preschool classrooms was a special opportunity for the high schoolers. Brian Copsey, a member of the Gering Public Schools board, said the students typically take on a different type of construction project.

“Normally they build a residential house each year, and there wasn't really anything happening on that,” Copsey said. “And we said, ‘Hey, we have land at one of our elementary schools, and there's a need. What if they built a preschool building?’”

The high schoolers were eager to help. Tanner Gartner, another graduate, said he learned important lessons.

“Doing this we could build anything from a bird house to pretty much a preschool now,” he said.

Gartner would go to the site a period earlier than everyone else to set up what they needed to do for the day.

He said he enjoyed the process, from working with the crane to getting tacos on Fridays if they worked hard.

And sometimes, he’d go throw a football around with the preschoolers to share the process with them — even if he was fibbing the truth a bit.

“Couple of them, I have them believe it’s an enclosure for a giraffe and not a school,” Gartner said.

But really, Gartner and his classmates were building a place for those students to learn and grow for years to come.