Sidney Public Schools

The Skills USA Pledge

Upon my Honor, I Pledge:

To prepare myself by diligent study and ardent practice to become a worker whose services will be recognized as honorable by my employer and fellow workers.
To base my expectations of reward upon the solid foundation of service.
To honor and respect my vocation in such a way as to bring repute to myself.
And further, to spare no effort in upholding the ideals of Skills USA.

Mr. Merritt is the supervisor of the Sidney Chapter of Skills USA.

He is also on the Board of Advisors for Region 5.

46th Annual National Leadership and Skills Conference

On June 21-25, three Sidney Skills-USA Members, Abby Hermanson, Tyler Christenson and Larimie Kyhl all competed amongst the other 6800 competitors from across the nation. Each one had placed first in their skill area to gain the opportunity to compete at the national level. Over 11,000 Skills-USA Members attended the conference.

The conference started out with several orientation and familiarization meetings for the competitors in each of the skill areas. It was kicked off by a Talk from Mike Holmes who is known as the “Most Trusted Contractor” He host and created the present TV show Holmes for Homes. His mission is simple “Make It Right”.

There were several workshops held for contestants and advisors all through-out the conference, from New technologies, New tools for industry and New software presentations, were just a few.

Competing for Sidney was Abby in the Job Interview contest and also took part in the 5K run early Friday morning and placed 4th overall in the women's division, Tyler Christensen in Diesel Technology and Larimie Kyhl in collision repair.

The first place winners at nationals will go on to compete at Internationals in London this fall.

It is a great experience for the students to compete at this level and meeting people from across the nation.

37th Annual State Leadership & Skills Conference

On April 7,8,9 the Sidney Chapter of SkillsUSA attendended their 37th Annual State Leadership & Skills Conference in Havre at MSU-Northern. At the conference there were 32 Schools represented and 400 competitors is 40 different areas of competition. Sidney had 14 of its members attend the conference.

Competing were:

Beau Prevost and Casey Denowh in Job Interview,

Brady Bouchard and Tyler Christensen in Basic Welding, Chrys Crosby and Lyle Peters in Combination Welding, Chase Cvancara and Beau Prevost in Architectural Drawing, Chris Hart in Cabinetmaking and millwork, Brennan Gorder and Laramie Kyhl in Basic Wood Technology, Julia Haase in Technical Drafting, Jacob Kalberer in Technical Computer Aided Drafting, Matt Helmers in Collision Repair Technology, Ronnie Krieger and Casey Denowh in Arc Welding,

Jacob, Julia, Beau, Tyler and Casey competed in the Quiz bowl.

Placing in the top three for Sidney were Tyler in Basic Welding First Place, Matt in Collision Repair Technology Second Place, Julia in Technical Drafting Second place, Chase in Architectural Drawing First Place and Beau was second place in the Architectural Drawing Contest. Beau and Casey also made it to the semi-final round in Job Interview.

Each of the top three placers in each contest were awarded prizes of tools and scholarships.

Sidney's Terry Desjarliais and Matt Donavan won the state pin design contest, Their design was produced and used for the Montana state pin for 2008.

Former Sidney High School students Matt Norgaaurd and Dustin Merritt were competing in the post-secondary division of The Diesel Technology Contest. Dustin also completed his term as the 2007-08 State Officer, at the conference.

Another former Sidney graduate Kyle Welnel was there with his Band “The Sammus Theory” and held a concert on Tuesday night for the competitors and MSU-Northern students. This was coordinated by State Officer Dustin Merritt.

38th Annual State Leadership & Skills Conference

The 38th SkillsUSA state leadership and skills conference was in Havre on the campus of MSU-Northern. There were 575 competitors from all around the state competing in over 42 competitions.

Fifteen members of the Sidney chapter competed at the conference in several leadership and skill contests.In the leadership contests Sidney members:
Casey Denowh, Beau Prevost and Chrys Crosby competed in the Job interview.
Julia Haase, Abby Hermanson, Austyn Mindt and Chrys Crosby competed in the Quiz Bowl.

Winning state medals for Sidney were: Laramie Kyhl- 2nd in the Collision Repair Technology
Tyler Goss- 2nd in the Power Equipment Technology
Chrys Crosby- 2nd in Carpentry
Tyler Christensen- 2nd in Precision Machining Technology
All of the above winners received tools and scholarships (ranging from full one year tuition to a one and two thousand dollars apiece) for placing in their events.

Placing in the Technical Drafting were Abby Hermanson 2nd and Julia Haase 3rd
Also competing were Beau Prevost and Brennan Gorder in Technical Drafting, Cody Whitney in Basic Wood Technology, Ronnie Krieger in Collision Technology, Austyn Mindt in Cabinetmaking and millwork, Matt Helmers, Lyle Peters and Brady Bouchard in Arc Welding, Casey Denowh in Carpentry

A former Sidney Chapter Member, Matt Norgaaurd, who was competing for Billings College Of Technology, placed 1st in Job Interview and 3rd in Diesel Technology. Matt will graduate in May from Billings COT. The National Skills USA Leadership and Skills Conference will be held in Kansas City on June 21-26.