# What would it cost to hire a scenic carpentry instructor



## RogerChapman (Feb 9, 2011)

I have seen a few mentions of paying techies at the high school level, but I was wondering what it would cost to hire a theater carpentry teacher to work in a high school wood shop and coordinate carpentry jobs as well as teach proper construction methods to high school level students. The reason I ask is because I am a technical theater student at one of the many "School of the Arts" and we have been without any proper carpentry instructor for quite a while, and it recently came to my attention that there is funding available to hire a new instructor. So what would it cost to hire someone to work for 3-4 hours every weekday afternoon and occasionally on weekends.


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## rochem (Feb 9, 2011)

There are an almost infinite number of factors here. Like many other times in life, you will get what you pay for. I'm sure you could find a carpenter who would work for $8 an hour, and there's a pretty good chance that he MIGHT be able to tell a band saw from a radial arm saw. Trust me, you don't want this. I have no idea what the standard union rate in San Francisco is, but chances are it hovers somewhere between $20 and $35 per hour for a union carpenter. At that rate, you can probably get a pretty good carpenter to work, however keep in mind that if they're already a good carpenter, then they're probably already working somewhere, and every hour they spend working for you part-time with no benefits is one less hour they can be working at their real job or spending time with their families. 

Also keep in mind that a good carpenter is not automatically going to be a good carpentry teacher. These are two totally different beasts. It's relatively easy to find a carpenter who can be handed a stack of plans and can turn out finished builds. It's quite another to find a person who can work with students to teach and instruct in order to come to a finished product. Also remember that since you're in a high school, you can't just put an ad in the paper and hire the best guy who shows up. Your situation may be different since you're at an arts-specific school, but if it's anything like most public high schools, even something simple like this will require a long, drawn-out interview process, an extensive background check, drug tests, and almost certainly bachelor's degree, if not even more. 

Hope that helps.


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## RogerChapman (Feb 9, 2011)

I had a feeling that you the numbers would be close to what you mentioned, and you are right that price is only a small element of it. I'm just trying to get some numbers together that I can present to those who control funding.


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## gafftaper (Feb 9, 2011)

If you are in a public school its far more complicated than you might think. There are all kinds of restrictions based on district policy, state law, and union contracts. You can't just hire someone for $20 an hour. Private schools have a lot more latitude, but it's still complex.


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## RogerChapman (Feb 10, 2011)

They would be hired into a position known as an "artist in resident" basically their only required qualification is being skilled in the area that they teach.


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## canadiagg (Feb 10, 2011)

I work as a carpenter and charge $45 an hour. I work in the high school set shop. You would have to pay e at least $60 an hour to teach them. I end up doing most of of the work with 1 or 2 people who can follow directions well. Not sure if it'd be easy to find an instructor willing to work for inexpensive. And set carpentry and real carpentry are as different night and day.


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