HILLSBORO, Texas — "The fire was really, you know devastating," said Alex Dominguez, a student at Hillsboro High School.
The destruction was so bad, Alex contemplated whether the school would ever recover. A year and a half ago, Hillsboro High School lost part of its wood shop building, impacting students and teachers.
“They told us the whole workshop was gone and even parts of the classroom was gone — so we were relocated to a different classroom," Dominguez said.
"I was sad because I wouldn’t be able to get to build and other students wouldn’t be able to build."
The wood shop meant everything to Alex. He tells me he’s been taking wood shop since he was a freshman. Not being in one of his favorite classes threw him off at times.
“When you’re building a project, it’s a lot of plans and a lot of rule-following and for me, it helps me like stay scheduled kind of almost like organized," Dominguez said.
The wood shop teacher Kyle Davis said that’s the point of the class.
“This gives them a look it lets them see that out at an industry the real world and how people do things in the real world," Davis said.
Fast forward a year later and things seem to be back to normal.
"I still feel great when they get to come in the woods because I guess there’s just another day and learn and an opportunity to learn and just to get better and more comfortable using these tools that I’m going to be using in the future," Dominguez said.
"It’s about my kids and I want my kids to be successful. And that’s the number one goal. So when they leave here, they’ve got a good solid base on them," Davis said.
Thanks to the wood shop and his teacher never giving up on him Alex tells me he sees a bright future ahead for himself.
“When I graduate, I’m gonna go to TSCC. It’s a trade school in Waco and I want to be a mechanic," Alex said.
