Kevin Baas’ “aha” moment as an educator came in 2003 when he began riding a 1958 Harley-Davidson Sportster to Kennedy High School, where he taught a metals class.
Students could not help but notice — and hear — when the tattooed teacher pulled up to the Bloomington school. They would surround him, ask about his bike.
“These were kids who were not in my class, but I could see they were excited about bikes,” Baas recalled this week. “I said, ‘Stop in my class and we’ll strip this bike down and work on it.’ And kids started signing up.”
Baas soon started a motorcycle-building club after school, and enrollment in his metals class doubled the next year.
“I saw that light bulb,” Baas said. “I realized this was something I need to push.”
Now, Baas teaches the program at Lakeville North High School as a manufacturing, engineering and technology instructor. The 45-year-old, who started in Lakeville last school year, didn’t have to do much convincing to get the job.
“We actively pursued him,” Principal Marne Berkvam said this week. “We knew what he did at Kennedy, how he turned things around there. He came here with an even bigger vision.”
SHOWING OFF THEIR WORK
This weekend, Baas’ students will compete with other custom motorcycle builds as part of the 32nd annual Donnie Smith Bike Show at the St. Paul RiverCentre. Last year’s student-built bike, which placed second, will be on display at Lakeville North’s booth.
Baas has been taking student-built bikes to the show since 2005, attracting big crowds and earning lots of awards. The show is considered the largest custom bike show in the Midwest.
“We were winning first place, gosh … probably eight years in a row,” Baas said of his time at Kennedy, where he spent 22 years.
Kennedy offered students a separate “Chopper Class,” as it was officially known, with full credit. It was replicated by a few other schools, including at St. Francis High in the north metro and at one outside Buffalo, N.Y.
In Lakeville, the curriculum is for higher-level manufacturing and engineering students who show interest and a drive in building motorcycles.
PUSH TOWARD THE FINAL PRODUCT
One afternoon this week, the four students Baas picked for this year’s project hustled around the shop. The bike was about 80 percent complete. The wiring, oil lines and a headlight still needed to get put on.
Ryley Anderson, an 11th-grader, fastened a seat on the custom cycle, which at one time was a 1998 Harley-Davidson Softail Springer. It was donated by a former Lakeville North student.
“This bike has our school as a theme, so that’s why we went with matte black with red accents for some pop,” he said.
Nearby, Zack Flen, also a junior, was in front of a metal lathe, working on axle spacers. Later, once Flen put the spacers on the front tire, Baas gave it a spin.
“Nice job,” Baas told Flen. “It’s tight, it’s straight.”
Baas then helped seniors Jack Olson and Zach Blilie install an 80-cubic-inch Flathead engine in a separate 1938 Harley-Davidson ULH.
Getting the students’ hands dirty is just part of the overall real-world experience, Baas said.
“I want them to be in charge of everything, things like getting donations, scheduling work with businesses for powder-coating and other stuff,” he said. “When I started 15 years ago, I was the one going to events trying to get donations. Now they do the leg work.”
REACHING OUT TO THE COMMUNITY
Berkvam, the school’s principal, said she helped recruit Baas from Kennedy in the summer of 2017 after hearing about the work he was doing there.
Berkvam said Lakeville North’s shop area “needed some TLC,” and the school wanted to go in a different direction.
“We had woodworking and welding and metals, but it was more of what they were doing,” she said. “They were making ice-cream scoops and pens, and we were looking more for doing things with 3-D printing, plasma cutters … things like that that are more up to date.”
Baas brought that vision to the school and has quickly turned around the manufacturing and engineering program, Berkvam said.
After taking inventory of what he had and what he needed, Baas reached out to local businesses, explaining what he hopes to accomplish. And many of them “have embraced us,” Berkvam said, by giving students tours of their plants and giving the school money.
BTD Manufacturing contributed $25,000 last year for the school to buy a new plasma cutter. This year, the company donated $12,500, and has pledged to give another $12,500 next year toward the school’s STEM manufacturing and engineering effort, Baas said.
Recently, Delmar Co., which specializes in the fabrication and machining of custom plastic parts, donated $10,000, Baas said.
HOW HAVE STUDENTS RESPONDED?
Enrollment in Baas’ manufacturing and engineering program is double what it was when he first started — now over 300 students in five classes — and the school is hoping to add a full-time teacher next year to help him out.
Baas said he never would have dreamed that that first motorcycle-building club in Bloomington would lead to all of this.
“I did it just because for me as a teacher it was a way to do a cool project, get these kids excited,” he said. “With motorcycles, it flips a switch in their heads and they’re proud of it and want to work hard and put in the time. When you find something like that, you got to run with it.”
DONNIE SMITH BIKE & CAR SHOW
- WHEN: Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- WHERE: St. Paul RiverCentre, located downtown along Kellogg Boulevard.
- ONLINE: www.donniesmithbikeshow.com