After a two-year process, the school board approved a $100,000 proposal to expand the 3-D Design class curriculum for the 2017-18 school year on Tuesday, Feb. 21.

The proposal includes new high-fire and glass kilns ranging from $1,700 to $40,000 each. This new equipment will allow students to participate in new projects, such as glass casting — molding glass into various sculptures.

“I just want more options to be able to share with students. There’s so much more technical and enjoyable things that can be learned and gotten from [this class]. We’re very limited right now with these two electric kilns,” 3-D Design teacher Ian Fullmer said.

The electric kilns currently used in the classroom are low-fire and can be brought up to a temperature of 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit. The new high-fire kilns will reach 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit. The low-fire kiln’s lower temperature creates more fragile pottery, while high-fire kilns allow for clay to fully fuse together and have a sturdier finish.

“High-fire kilns are done with gas. There’s gas burners underneath them, so the atmosphere inside there is very complex and you can manipulate it to get the glazes to do more intricate and beautiful things so you get this more professional look,” Fullmer said.

According to Fullmer, the current two kilns are not enough for large classes.

“We’ve gone through almost three tons of clay this year. That’s a lot of production to be focused on only those two kilns. It’s challenging to do that with all these students,” Fullmer said.

The current electric kilns will still be used in the classroom after the new kilns arrive. Among other uses, they will be used to pre-fire clay at low temperatures.

“Now these two small kilns would be used for the [unglazed pottery], and we can still do low-fire and mid-fire stuff in them,” Fullmer said.

With the new equipment, the class’s curriculum will include more glass projects.

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“A year of just ceramics isn’t really necessary. I can come up with thousands of projects, but I can really get what I want people to learn within a semester of ceramics. So we would do a semester of ceramics and a semester of glass,” Fullmer said.

During the semester of glass, students would participate in fusing and molding stained glass.

“We can do glass fusing, we can do glass painting. I want to do a project where we do light and we make chandeliers by fusing metal inside glass,” Fullmer said.

Because of his background, Fullmer has been able to create for students a new curiosity in the class.

“My first degrees were in sculpture and glass design. Then I went back and got my art education degree,” Fullmer said. “It’ll just generate more interest from all over the place. I’ll be more excited.”

According to Principal Kevin Buchanan, Fullmer gave the school the opportunity that they were looking for to expand the 3-D Design curriculum..

“We knew that he had a particular skillset and a desire to broaden the types of work they do in 3-D Design. And the 3-D art is not just limited to one medium,” Buchanan said. “I think you saw that when Fullmer arrived – it wasn’t just ceramics. All of a sudden, the kids were working with wood, and rope and string, and you started to see different types of 3-D art coming out of that classroom.”

Two years ago, Buchanan asked Fullmer to submit a proposal.

“Knowing that he had more of an interest in expanding the 3-D artwork when we hired him, it was in our mind –– we have an opportunity here with someone very skilled to expand the program and we asked him for a proposal,” Buchanan said.

In total, Fullmer said the 3-D Design class will be receiving five new “work horses.”

“We’re getting the high-fire kiln, the gas raku kiln — those are both ceramic — a glass casting kiln, a glass fusing kiln and then a crucible [to melt pots],” Fullmer said.

The new addition of kilns will also interest more students, according to sophomore and 3-D Design student Jaxon Green.

“I can’t wait to work with more materials and design more things,” Green said. “I think that adding more kilns and products to the class will make people want to join more, and raise people’s interest in the overall subject.”

In addition to the new equipment, Fullmer’s plan includes building a roofed structure in the courtyard outside the 3-D Design classroom to house the kilns and provide a learning space for students.

“The space will be 25-by-30 feet, and it’s going to have an aluminum roof and fencing around the whole thing. It’ll be 11 to 12 feet tall with a 12-foot gate [to move large equipment in and out] and at least two big work tables inside,” Fullmer said.

According to Buchanan, the location of the classroom makes the addition of the kilns simpler.

“It’s very close to the electrical and gas maintenance room. It seemed like it would work in terms of all the infrastructure you would need because [the kilns are] higher voltage machines –– they’re gas-fired, so they need venting to the outside and lots of space,” Buchanan said.

The funding for the project was also made possible by a combination of the recently passed Bond Measure S and old Bond Measure R.

“It’s not cheap — it never is. As long as the board committee feels like this is in the benefit of the school, and this is something we want to do, then the project gets green-lit and the funding gets approved,” Buchanan said.

According to Buchanan, the project will be beneficial in providing opportunities for students.

“We are looking to continue to provide pathways for kids into careers. And there’re a lot of careers in the arts. [At Oak Park High School] it won’t just be ceramics, it won’t just be drawing and painting, or graphic arts –– there’ll be other arts here,” Buchanan said.

Two years after submitting his proposal, Fullmer has made new pathways for Oak Park High School.

“This didn’t come by me just asking for this stuff. This came by me sitting in on all the meetings for the new measure. It was like 50 pages of writing, and hundreds of emails and engineering the whole space outside,” Fullmer said.

According to Fullmer, the new kilns will make 3-D’s Design’s name more fitting.

“This class is called 3-D Design and somewhere along the way, someone turned it into ceramics,” Fullmer said. “We need more than just clay to call it ‘3-D Design.’ Clay just isn’t enough.”