As they walk into class, students set down their backpacks, pick up a blueprint and trade in their textbooks for safety goggles.

This is a normal day for students in Chuck Boyles’s stagecraft class.

This year, Boyles teaches two new classes — stagecraft in the fall, and theater design in the spring. Boyles has been employed by the USD 250 school district for four years, directing the stagecraft and management for the theater program, but this is his first year teaching an accredited class.

Inspired by his father, who taught him basic skills and problem solving, Boyles wanted to share his knowledge with students.

“I was technical director for Memorial Auditorium [before] I was deployed to Iraq. When I was there, I lost some of my hearing, so doing tasks like sound tuning became more difficult,” Boyles said. “The Veterans Administration (VA) came to me and offered to sponsor me for vocational rehabilitation.”

The VA offered Boyles the opportunity to receive further education after returning to the states.

“I already had a lot of my prerequisites, so I decided to go back to school for my teaching certificate,” Boyles said. “I finished my classes five years ago and did my student teaching under [theater teacher] Greg Shaw.”

Students learn about tools and how to use them, tool safety, as well as when and where to use hardware like screws, bolts and power tools.

“They learn how to work together collectively as a group, as well as individually. They learn to schedule time and how to follow a critical path, how to find a balance between productivity and creativity,” Boyles said. “We do everything from set pieces [for shows] to finding things to recycle to help save money. Right now, we are gathering set pieces for the fall musical Aida and also for the play The Crucible.”

Junior Meadow Creamer enjoys progressively learning new skills.

“It’s a really great class.[Boyles] offers a lot of information in this class. We start from the bottom and build up with the different skills. We learn a lot about props, like what kind of screws and wood to use.”

Senior Julian Archuleta recognizes the benefits from the class both inside and outside the classroom.

“Even if you’re not involved or interested in theater, this class teaches us basic life skills,” Archuleta said. “I recommend this class because it teaches you skills in life that you need to know, skills that you would have to pay money for someone else to do.”