The MiLL has its origins in the classroom teaching experiences of founder Dean Mattson in collaboration with Peyton School District Superintendent Tim Kistler and Widefield School District 3 Superintendent Scott Campbell.
Background
The MiLL stands for “Manufacturing Industry Learning Lab”. We are located at the Peyton/Widefield Vocational Education Campus on 4450 Foreign Trade Zone Boulevard across from the Widefield School District’s Transportation Department.
In the fall of 2015, Peyton 23-JT Superintendent Tim Kistler hired Dean Mattson to teach state-of-the-art woodworking manufacturing classes. Mattson is a former professional cabinet maker who started a similar program at a high school in Oregon that was a huge success. The program became known as the Peyton Woods Manufacturing Program with a shop that includes more than $800,000 in loaned equipment from some of the industry’s biggest names.
Widefield School District Superintendent Scott Campbell was blown away by the potential of the program after attending an open house and jumped at the opportunity to get his students involved.
In the spring of 2016, Widefield sent 30 students to Peyton to be a part of the program. There are now 180 students from six school districts participating in our program daily.
The success of the program (in less than a year), prompted Mattson, Kistler and Campbell to create a partnership that will allow the program to expand in Southern Colorado.
The two school districts entered into a partnership through the Peyton/Widefield Vocational Education Campus, which houses a 46,000-square-foot building located south of the Colorado Springs Airport. Stiles Machinery, headquartered in Grand Rapids, Mich., has committed a significant amount of equipment for woodworking students to use.
The Wood Machinery Manufacturers of America and the Woodworking Machinery Industry Association recently donated $25,000 to the MILL. We also have over 40 exclusive partners and are excited to build more relationships with those interested in giving students a career pathway and strengthening Colorado’s workforce.
RECENTLY IN THE NEWS:
The Gazette:
The Gazette Editorial Board:
Colorado Springs Business Journal (CSBJ):
The Woodworking Network:
- International Woodworking Fair supports wood Manufacturing Industry Learning Lab
- Wood Industry 40 Under 40 winner overcomes challenges to focus on students
- New National Manufacturing Training Center will include Woodworking
- New National Training Center site open doors and draws large crowd
Curbed/Vox Media:
Prediction: The Widefield and Peyton School Districts will start a national education trend. Educators will visit this region to learn from these districts and emulate their new program.
Editorial Board MemberWHY WAS THE MILL CREATED?
The Peyton Woods Manufacturing Program, which includes the Manufacturing Industry Learning Labs (the MiLL), had its origin in the classroom teaching experiences of its founder, Dean Mattson. In 2009, Mattson brought his years of woodworking and business expertise in Woods Manufacturing to North Salem High School in Salem, Oregon.
Five years later, his vision of a business-education partnership helped shape the Career Technical Education Center (CTEC) in the Salem/Keizer school district. Educational leaders throughout the nation asked Dean how they could teach his model in their schools.
In 2015, Mattson brought this model to Peyton, Colorado, where the Peyton school district took an abandoned middle school building and transformed it into a Woods Manufacturing Lab. Students and industry representatives began to see firsthand what a “state of the art” woods lab and curriculum could produce.
The MiLL was created to expand training classes to include Woods Manufacturing, Cabinet Finishing, and Construction for not only high school students, but also for colleges, military, and industry.
40+ industry partners have been united to provide the technology, machinery, tools and supplies to give students a world-class education.
Students
“I would like to take you back to the story of Mary, the young homeless girl who made a small table in my classroom. She told me in tears the story of how it would be a perfect dining table for her and her four little brothers and sisters in the back seat of the car they were living in.
It was so shocking that it inspired me to go far beyond my abilities as a teacher and to try to change a broken system. There is something very wrong about throwing away human beings.
It was a WOW moment for me.”
– Dean Mattson, in a speech to WMIA, 2014.
Partnering School Districts
We are training the next generation of industry and education leaders.
HERE’S HOW IT ALL HAPPENED
2009
Dean Mattson brought his Lean Manufacturing experience in Woods Manufacturing to Public Education in Salem, Oregon.
2014
Mattson’s vision of partnering Business and Education materialized in the creation of CTEC (Career Technical Education Center), a 125,000 sq ft facility in Salem, Oregon.
2015
Education leaders throughout the nation asked Mattson how they could teach his model in their schools. The Woods model was expanded to the Peyton School District in Peyton, Colorado when Peyton 23-JT Superintendent Tim Kistler hired Mattson to teach state-of-the-art woodworking manufacturing classes.
They took an abandoned Middle School building turned it into the Mattson’s Woods Manufacturing Labs.
2016
Students and Industry saw firsthand what a “State of the Art” woods lab and curriculum could produce, and that it could lead to to a dynamic, exciting and limitless career in Woods Manufacturing.
A partnership between Peyton and Widefield school districts allowed for the purchase and development of the 46,000 sq ft MiLL National Training Center.
2017
Stiles Machine Corporation, understanding the need for properly trained and prepared workforce, sent semi-trucks loaded with high technology equipment.
Over 40 Industry Partners have provided more than $425,000 in donations along with over 230 machines, tools, and technology to the MiLL.
The “CTE Woods Manufacturing Curriculum” was finalized.
We are redefining what education can look like in the future.
