Sparks flew behind yellow, plastic barriers inside Debbie Smith Career and Technical Academy as students built parts for a NASA rover on an October afternoon.
Welding and metalworks is one of the nine programs at the Reno high school, which opened this school year. The sprawling campus has large, open spaces for learning, a lab where nursing students complete with gurneys and dummies standing in for patients, and a kitchen and cafe to give culinary students hands-on experience.
Student Anthony Arroyo Ramirez said his previous school in the district, the Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology, didn’t have its own shop, forcing students to use a community college campus to practice their welding skills…