Waukegan CUSD 60 showcases new HVAC lab in Jetson Controls partnership

Waukegan CUSD 60 held an open house to showcase student work in a newly activated HVAC laboratory developed with Jetson Controls, district staff and students said.

A staff member described the event as “our open house” and said it was intended to display “what our students have accomplished and learned so far with the partnership with Jetson Controls.”

The program is part of the district’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) offerings. A staff member emphasized CTE’s role in graduation and workforce preparation, saying, “CTE is so important to our schools. CTE has proven to actually increase the graduation rate up to 20 percent of students that would normally be in jeopardy of graduating.” The staff member added that heating, cooling, electrical and plumbing skills are stable, expanding job areas that apply across residential, commercial and automotive sectors.

Students at the open house described hands-on learning in the lab. One student said they had wanted engineering but were placed in the HVAC pathway because the engineering class “was full,” and called the HVAC exposure “a good idea” because it offered experience they would not have had elsewhere. Another student said the lab suited a hands-on learning style: “Something that I really like about the class is me personally, I'm a very hands on type of person. I like working with my hands, using some tools, and I thought that this was a good opportunity to learn something new.”

Students also said the lab gives practical tool experience that can help them in postsecondary study: “The exposure to all these different types of tools, like, for me, I said I would like to pursue engineering. So the different type of tool will, like, prepare me for when I go to college and, like, I already have, like, a grasp of what to do in certain areas.”

District staff framed the lab as the culmination of a longer process to make the HVAC workspace available to students: “we are super excited to be celebrating the actual usage of our HVAC lab. It has been a long road, and we're just excited to be having actual students being able to participate in the classes to learn what it is to be a HVAC,” the staff member said.

No formal actions, votes or funding lines were discussed in the recorded remarks. The open house remarks focused on student learning, hands-on training and the district’s partnership with Jetson Controls.

The district did not specify enrollment numbers, the lab’s budget, or a timeline for expanding the program beyond the comments at the open house.