Burke kids tweak, tune mowers

The young workers in this lawn mower service shop are paid in pizza, doughnuts, bananas and extra credit.

You can do that when your employees are your students and your profits go into equipment for the school shop program.

That's the case at Burke High School, where industrial technology teachers and their students are servicing mowers for $25 or somewhat more, depending on what the mower needs.

Burke's mower tuneup service, which continues through this week and concludes Saturday, gives students a chance to work side-by-side with teachers and learn about small engines.

The service boomed on Saturday. Six students and three teachers manned the wood-shop area. People drove right up to the room, with its double doors open to the outside, on the east side of the high school. Some 35 people dropped off mowers and snowblowers that day.

“Lawn mowers, lawn mowers everywhere,” teacher Ryan Hoy said. They were indeed everywhere in two rooms and outside. Some were ready for pickup, one or two were on their sides and most were in line to be worked on.

Same-day service costs $30, and spark plug and filter replacement can add about $20 to the bill. The service, in its second year at Burke, is cheaper than most small-engine repair shops, and the tough economy might play a small role in the fact that their business is up from last year, teachers said.

But many of their customers just want to support the kids and the program.

Some other schools in the metro area, including Lewis Central High School in Council Bluffs and Millard South and North High Schools, offered similar services earlier this spring.

Ed Reyes, an Omaha police lieutenant, picked up two lawn mowers Saturday at Burke. “See you next year,” he told the crew as he left.

“Came here last year, too,” Reyes said. “You can see how hard they work, too. The kids they go at it.”

Harold Miller, the industrial tech teacher who oversees the activity, said that as of Saturday, his crew had received about 75 mowers and eight snowblowers. They added snowblowers to their service this year. Miller expects that they will work on at least 125 machines this year, up from 75 last year.

Students call him “Miller” because, at 25 years of age, he looks younger than some of them. “I'm not old enough to be a Mister,” Miller said.

They sharpen the blades, scrape dirt from the bottom, pressure wash the machines, and check and clean the air filter and spark plug. They also change the oil. The teachers double-check their students' work.

“I need you guys to get this big bad boy up on the table,” Miller said of a snowblower. Junior Hunter Croushorn and senior Jake Olafson, and teacher Joe Olafson (Jake's dad), hefted the snowblower up.

“Nice,” Joe Olafson said.

The dean of students at Burke, Tyree Sejkora, arrived in a pickup to pick up her mower.

“We've got, like, 80-something now,” senior Stephon Washington told her.

“That's awesome,” Sejkora responded. “You guys rock. Who do I pay?”

Contact the writer:

444-1123, rick.ruggles@owh.com

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