Tech center teachers take over: Settlemyer settles in at RRTC

Don Settlemyer is the new construction trades teacher. His childhood dream was to build things, and he's worked in the construction industry most of his life.

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February 25, 2022 - 4:52 PM

Don Settlemyer is the new construction trades teacher. Photo by Richard Luken / Iola Register

LAHARPE — Don Settlemyer’s teaching career began in early January, when he took the helm of the construction trades class at the Regional Rural Technical Center.

But in reality, Settlemyer has been a teacher all his life.

“I had a family member who told me, ‘You’ve taught everybody you’ve had work for you,’” Settlemyer noted. “And they’re right.”

While he’s been in the classroom for less than two months, Settlemyer brings a lifetime of experience into the job.

He graduated from Iola High School in 1977, and began work almost immediately as a carpenter, working for his stepfather.

It fulfilled his childhood dream: building things.

“It’s kind of cool building a house, and you look back 40 years, and it’s still there,” he said.

Settlemyer moved out to the southwest corner of Kansas in 1980 to build homes with his stepfather.

He did that for nearly 20 years, before moving to Wichita in 1999 as a supervisor for a construction company.

“We just built one house after another,” he said. “We’d do renovations, whatever was needed.”

His work became so efficient, usually with a two-man crew, that Settlemyer would get a house framed, allow subcontractors on the site to do the assorted electrical and plumbing installations, freeing him up to start on the frame of the next house on his to-do list.

Settlemyer also was tasked with helping design the homes.

He offered a few bits of advice for his clientele.

Buy plenty of house plans, pick what you like from each, and let him do the rest.

“They’d find the outside of the house they’d like, but the inside might not match,” he noted. “They may find a kitchen they want in another set of plans.”

It was his charge to make things fit. Occasionally, he’d have to downsize (or even go bigger), but more often than not, his designs were a perfect fit.

“It was a blast,” he said. “I loved doing it all.

“I learned to build from my stepdad, and we did everything,” Settlemyer continued. “We poured the concrete, we framed the house, we Sheetrocked the house, we roofed the house.”

He would even do the siding, and build the cabinetry.

“Nowadays, you’ll get a roofer, or a guy who does siding who has no idea how the framing is done.” Settlemyer said. “I can tell you some stories about some siders.”

He hopes his students — 10 in all — will embrace his all-encompassing approach to construction.

“I like teaching kids every basic step,” he said.

WHILE Settlemyer enjoyed working in Wichita, he found himself in classrooms too much for his liking.

“That’s where I started to get burned out,” he said. “I got tired of OSHA and the EPA being involved in everything. Any time they’d come up with a new regulation, I’d be in the classroom a couple days each week. It took the fun out of it.”

It was then, Settlemyer and his wife agreed, to return closer to his boyhood home.

Settlemyer settled on a farm near Le Roy, where he worked briefly for Gates Corporation, but mostly as a carpenter and contractor.

“Farming was never my thing,” he chuckled. “I couldn’t sit in a tractor for 12 hours a day.”

He has assisted Terry Sparks with a number of noteworthy projects, including the picturesque Lofts apartments in downtown Iola.

THAT CHANGED in mid-December following the untimely passing of former construction trades teacher Brett Dawson.

A former coworker gave Settlemyer a call.

“He said I was the first person they thought of, and asked if I’d be interested,” Settlemyer recalled.

He reached out to Melissa Stiffler, career and technical education director for Iola-USD 257, who in turn put him in touch with Iola High Principal Scott Carson and Superintendent of Schools Stacey Fager.

It was a natural fit.

Within days, the RRTC had its teacher.

IN HIS few brief weeks on the job, Settlemyer has grown to appreciate the knowledge and craftsmanship of his students. Nine are from Iola High; the 10th from Marmaton Valley.

“They’ve done a good job,” he said, noting all had been enrolled in the construction trades course in the fall semester.

The main project for the students this spring is to renovate a two-story house near the middle school at the intersection of Jackson and Colborn streets.

(Most Iolans remember the home being relocated early in 2021 from a lot south of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.)

“It’s in pretty good shape,” Settlemyer said.

The plaster and lath walls will be stripped to the bare studs. The outdated electrical and plumbing infrastructure will be replaced as well.

“It’s not going to be a quick job,” he said.

And while it’s too cold to do much in the home this week, the class has other projects on its agenda, including construction of a gazebo in the RRTC shop area.

Settlemyer also serves as wood shop teacher at IHS in the afternoons, and works occasionally with middle-schoolers as well to embed in them the basics of carpentry.

“So when they get to high school, they already know how to read a tape measure, and how a saw works,” Settlemyer said. “That way, if they want to continue onto high school, they’ve already got some of the basics out of the way.”

SETTLEMYER has settled into his new position quite well.

At 62, climbing up and down ladders no longer carries the appeal it did when he was younger.

The constant wear and tear has taken its toll. Settlemyer has had both knees replaced, and is content to remain in an instructor’s capacity.

“This is cool,” he said. “If kids are interested, I’ll teach them all day long. I still just enjoy working.”

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