PRESCOTT — The Prescott technical education department is welcoming the public to the high school at 6 p.m. April 16 for an open house to tour and learn about R5 Manufacturing, a student-run business at the school.

“They’re going to get tours of the facilities, we’re going to show them all the classes that we offer and then we’re going to describe how students can jump through the prerequisites to take R5 as a junior or senior,” teacher Kyle Schmidt said.

R5 Manufacturing is a way for students to pick up valuable hands-on experience in the classroom, seeing projects all the way through the process like they will in the workforce.

“R5 is a student-run business,” Schmidt said. “It’s kind of like a capstone class where students are going to be able to find a customer, solve their problem. They come back to school, they’re going to blueprint it, come up with the estimate, contact the customer again and then they resolve any issues that they might see within their design. Then they take that design, they give it the okay. Then the student builds it.”

Schmidt said this program benefits the students, the community and businesses all at once.

“It’s there so that the community understands that we’re here to help community members and help business members solve problems,” Schmidt said.

Students are paid a profit share for their involvement, and they can receive scholarships based on the projects they have completed. He mentioned much of the money goes to the students, not the program, and this is an opportunity for the students to showcase the talents they have.

Schmidt said it is important for interested community members to attend because they can see what the funding goes to.

“It’s a great benefit to the students because they’re not just sitting in a class, doing the homework, creating a project and then they take it home and it’s done,” Schmidt said. “Now they’re learning how far a dollar goes, they’re in contact with the customer so they’re getting their customer service involved in their design.”

There will be raffle tickets, drinks, food and prizes at the event.

Prescott School District is also in the process of putting up a machine shed outside the high school to free up space that has been lost for increased machinery opportunities over the last few years.

The woodshop is housing the mill and other machines, making the shop a difficult area to navigate with no remaining space. A machine shed allows the return of space as the mill and kiln can be stored there. Wood would be dried in the machine shed as well. Eventually the plan is to have a classroom in the machine shed to be used for both students and the community. Other items that have been discussed for the shed are storage space for sports and a concession stand for events.

“It’s kind of an all-encompassing project that doesn’t just benefit tech ed,” Schmidt said. “Any teacher in the district can bring their class out there and teach in the classroom once that’s built.”

This was a planned next step for the department when they started milling their own lumber. They first proved to the district that milling their own lumber could be a successful process and now they are pursuing more space to maintain the momentum.