Business Over Breakfast

Description

Building Our Future:  School-Business Partnership
The relationships among schools and the communities in which they operate are essential to student learning. School–business partnerships have been shown to enhance educational experiences for students, preparing them on their journey in becoming our future employees, leaders, and community members. No partnership is too small! There are many ways a business can support a school’s educational goals through job shadows, school-business service-learning collaborations, guest speaking, and mentorships.
 
Our Program
Our August Business Over Breakfast will focus on school-to-career partnerships, a program that extends education beyond the classroom whether in the trades or in a professional role. The benefits are reciprocal for both the student and the business. It gives students a tremendous opportunity to explore a career path and gain firsthand experience in a real-life setting. Businesses have a great opportunity to build their talent pipeline by educating students about positions available within their organization. They also enjoy an enhanced community image as students share information about the business and its products and services through conversations about what they are doing. 

Tim O’Brien from Tim O’Brien Homes and Steve Olson, Building Trades Teacher at Oconomowoc Area School District, will give insight into a successful school-business partnership that is in its twelfth year. They will share how their partnership got started, some of the logistical challenges they overcame, and how the program has impacted the many students who have participated in it.

We will also hear from two former students who are now plumber apprentices with Erspamer Plumbing, Inc.  Chase Kessler and Caleb Warnke will tell about their experience with the project and how it impacted their career choice and Scott Krenz, their supervisor, will give his perspective of how the program benefitted his business and industry.
 
ABOUT OUR PRESENTERS

Timothy M. O’Brien, President of Tim O’Brien Homes
Tim O’Brien Homes (TOH) is a residential home building company focused on building green and energy efficient homes founded in 2007. Since its inception, it has been honored to receive the Silver NHQ award in 2016 and the Gold award in 2017. At the start of 2018, the company has also broken ground in Wisconsin’s first net zero energy neighborhood, Red Fox Crossing in New Berlin, and is the leading innovator of Solar Energy homes, partnering with SunVest Solar, Inc., for the state.

Tim has a M.S. in Civil Engineering-Construction Engineering Management from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He has served with the Single-Family Builders Council, the Habitat for Humanity Home Builder Blitz, and as Chairman of the Green Building Council. He is a past President for the Metropolitan Builders Association, and currently serves the Wisconsin Builders Foundation, National Association of Home Builder, and Waukesha County Technical College’s construction trades board.

Tim O'Brien Homes is very active in several Metro-Milwaukee and Madison area school districts running a complete home building program (excavation to occupancy) in TOH neighborhoods, with high the school construction building trades classes at Oconomowoc (11 years), New Berlin (4 years), Franklin (3 years), and Oregon (2 years). High school students work side by side each year with trade partners for the entire fall semester.
Tim is married (27 years) and has three children. His family enjoys boating, and spending time on the lake near his home.


Steve Olson, Building Trades Teacher at Oconomowoc Area School District
Steve is a certified staff member at Oconomowoc High School since the fall of 1995. After graduating from UW-Stout in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Technology Education, he earned a master’s degree in Curriculum & Instruction from National-Louis University in the spring of 1999.  Through the years, he has taught many different classes in the technology education department of OHS, including Materials and Processes, Innovations, Inventions and Problem Solving, and welding.  In 1998 he developed the current Building Trades program at OHS which consists of three levels of classes: Building Trades 1, Building Trades 2, and the capstone Building Trades 3. In 2006 the Building Trades 3 class built its first student-built home. From 2006 to 2010, Steve partnered with Brookstone Homes to build 4 student-built houses.  In 2010 he partnered with Tim O’Brien Homes and 12 more student-built houses were completed with them. 

Steve has been married for 24 years and has two children, Luke (23) and Lilly (21). In his spare time, he enjoys fishing, camping, and spending time outdoors.