Students Land Big Catch

By Cathy Spaulding
Muskogee Phoenix Staff Writer
Reprinted with permission
© May 21, 2007

At age 19, Indian Capital Technology Center carpentry student Robbie Mayfield already has what many of his classmates may have to work years to get — a job with a $55,000 annual salary.

Mayfield, a 2006 Porter High School graduate, spent the past semester working at Re-Bath, a franchise that specializes in one-day bath remodeling. He works at the company’s Tulsa franchise, Bathtub and Shower Liners of OK. Just how he snagged the job is a little fishy. Mayfield said he was working at Long John Silvers Seafood Shoppe in Muskogee when his boss recommended the remodeling job. “I never even heard of Re-Bath before then,” he said. Long John Silvers manager Linda Potter said she was impressed by Mayfield’s work ethic. “He was just a model employee,” she said. “He’s just very personable, hard working, dependable.” Potter said she hooked him up with her husband, a supervisor with the Tulsa Re-Bath franchise. Mayfield said he had left the Long John Silvers job for a while and tried to come back, but Potter turned him away. “She told me to call her husband,” he said. “She was my boss there and he is my boss now.”

Indian Capital carpentry teacher Dwain Maxwell said Mayfield was able to get on the job training and class credit at his Tulsa job.

“They fill out a weekly report on his work habits and I give him a grade based on that,” Maxwell said.

The instructor said it’s fairly common for a student to land a construction or remodeling job through the on-the-job training program.

“It’s the job salary that’s unusual,” Maxwell said. “It’s a two-year contract for $55,000 a year. I said ‘Robbie, look at the contract good.’”

Mayfield said his job is a lot different from what he learned in carpentry class, which focused on building. Class members built a house and had their own carpentry projects. His job at Re-Bath involves installing prefabricated bathtubs or shower bases as well as the surrounding tile wall systems, bases and accessories such as soap dishes, ceiling panels, shelves and wainscoting.
Still, he said he’s glad he has taken the class for the past year.

“If I’d have gone to work and had not done this class, I’d be completely lost,” he said. “For one thing, I learned to use a miter saw.
Mayfield graduates this year from Indian Capital.

Maxwell has one wish for his student.

“I hope he hires me,” he said with a grin. “That’s more than I make and I have 100 hours of college.”