Cassia's diesel tech program gets boost with groundbreaking for new shop

Cassia Regional Tech Center broke ground today on a new 10,000 square-foot diesel tech shop, to allow the program to have its own space, and expand to meet the needs of students in Cassia County.

• Growing demand in the diesel industry brings new opportunities to the Magic Valley.
• Instructor Chad Evans teaches diesel tech to Cassia County high schoolers. He currently shares a shop and classroom space with the automotive instructor.
• Evans is understandably thrilled that Cassia Regional Tech Center broke ground on a new ten thousand square-foot shop for the diesel program.

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)

“The whole world runs on diesel. That's just the way it is,” instructor Chad Evans told me an hour before the groundbreaking for a new diesel shop.

Growing demand in the diesel industry brings new opportunities to the Magic Valley

“There's not anywhere in the world or in our county or anywhere you can't go find something that's related to it, and you can go to work,” Evans said

Evans teaches diesel tech to Cassia County high schoolers.. Currently sharing a shop and classroom space with the automotive instructor.

Between the two of them, the shop can get crowded quickly.

“We've done a lot of good things in here but it's just, you know, you get a semi in here and it takes up half my side of the shop,” Evans said.

So Evans is understandably thrilled that Cassia Regional Tech Center broke ground on a new ten thousand square-foot shop for the diesel program.

“Safety is going to be better,” Evans said. “It’s also gonna allow me to let a few more kids in so maybe grow my program a little bit.”

Chester Bradshaw is the assistant superintendent for Cassia County schools.

He sees students making major career decisions in high school... and sees this expansion as a way to keep up with how young people are planning their futures.

“I feel like our challenge as school administrators is to make sure that students understand their options way better,” Bradshaw told Idaho News 6. “So that when they're completed with high school they have a much better idea of what's out there for them.”

With six pull-through bays the days of the 18 point turns to fit the big rigs into the shop are about to be a thing of the past.

“Yeah, 18-point turns I'm getting pretty good at, but that's that's one of the difficulties of the shop for the big stuff,” Evans said.