Decorative musical tree installed in Weiser High School auditorium

The final upgrade to the Weiser High School auditorium was put into place the week of Dec. 10, just in time for all the elementary school’s Christmas programs. A cut-metal “musical tree” was installed around the sound booth at the public entrance of the auditorium.

 Superintendent Wil Overgaard said, “It is a terrific addition to what was already a nice venue for performances.”

 Using funds from a Plant and Facility levy that was passed in 2015, auditorium upgrades began in the 2016-2017 school year. The upgrades began with new backdrop curtains. Then Jason Hickey of Aspencreek Custom Builders oversaw the building of the new sound booth and coordinated the upgrades to the lighting and sound systems. 

 The sound booth has two columns on the side to hold electrical wiring. To make the columns more decorative, Sharolyn and Chris Schofield of Schofield Designs designed a metal “musical tree.” There are four pieces that make up the tree and have different musical symbols cut into the stems and leaves. The piece that arches between the two columns is a musical staff that has the first bar of the Weiser fight song.

 Principal Dave Davies was impressed with the design. 

 “It is so incredibly creative. It’s impressive how they (Schofields) came up with the idea and then brought it to life.”

 The making of the piece was a group effort between the Schofields, retired teacher Stuart Nesbitt and the ag shop at the high school, Hickey, and Appleton Produce. 

 Nesbitt and two of his AG students, Conner Hilt and Mikel Davies, worked on the cutting of the metal pieces. This took a couple of years, since first they had to learn how to program and use a new plasma cutter that the AG shop had just received with help of a Gear-Up grant. 

 Hilt started programming the plasma cutter, but wasn’t able to get any cutting done due to the learning curve on the machine and issues with the computer program. The next year Davies was able to finish programming the plasma cutter, cut out the pieces, and then used some of his summer to prep the cut pieces. 

 After the 3/16 steel was cut and prepped, the install began. The pieces are large and heavy and had to be supported with cables that not only went through the ceiling, but also connected with an anchor system to the beams above. 

 The Schofields installed the five pieces with the help of Appleton Produce employees. Appleton employees Bruce Hawkins, Darin Walker, and VerNon Chandler welded the pieces into place in the auditorium. After the welding was completed, Sharolyn Schofield worked on painting the pieces black with gold accents.

 “It’s beautiful. A lot of thought has gone into the design. It gives the auditorium a much more refined look and feel,” music teacher Mike Turner said.

 More pictures of the process can be found on the Schofields website, www.schofielddesign.net. Click on the projects tab and then the music tree folder.