Construction Trades Instructor, Terrell Taylor, received the Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Grand Prize for Teaching Excellence, including a $100,000 prize.

“I’m very elated for our program and our students, that’s what it’s about,” he said. “It’s not about Mr. Taylor. This is about our program and reinvesting into our students. I was pleasantly humbled, surprised and shocked to be the grand prize winner, but very thankful”.

Mr. Taylor said he is going to take some time to figure out the best way to invest the money.

“It can do whatever is going to help build our program,” he said. “My thing is to take what we have, not saying this is the pinnacle of the mountain, this is the base of it, and we’re going to grow from here”.

“So, how do I take that money that’s been bestowed upon us and exponentially grow it. Make it larger than that. So, take the 100k, and make it 300k. Whatever it takes to grow it, not spend it so it depletes it”.

Mr. Taylor is proud of what the Construction Trades program offers students.

“Opportunities means options, so the more opportunities we can create for you, the more options you have in life,” he said. “It’s not about just building products, it’s about building people. So our focus is not projects, it’s building you up to find your lane of success”.

The school’s investment in the CTE program and the new building also has benefitted Mr. Taylor’s program and he is excited for the future.

“When I first started out seven years ago, I was out in a maintenance barn garage over there, that was my classroom and lab,” he recalled. “Then they moved me to an internal room where I couldn’t really build anything and get it out of the room.”

“So, getting to this point is incredible, to see the investment our corporation has made into CTE is incredible. Now we have to grow into our new clothes. We got a new suit right there, a 6,000-square-foot suit. Now we have got to grow into it. Now we have to work and develop our program that fits the space that we have.”