YOU CAN HELP: West Seattle High School woodshop crowdfunding for ‘essential tool’

| How to help | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

We’ve featured many fundraisers during the school year that’s about to end – here’s an unusual one we were asked to share with you on behalf of a West Seattle High School program:

Help Replace the Woodshop’s Planer
Donate to Woodshop for a New Planer

WSHS’s 26-year-old planer is broken and the District does not have the funds to repair or replace it. We are turning to the community to ask for support in raising $15,000 to replace the planer in time for the start of school next Fall.

A planer is an essential tool for woodworking because it transforms rough, uneven lumber into flat, uniform-thickness boards, allowing students to create professional-grade joints and furniture. It saves money by enabling the use of cheaper, rough-cut lumber and ensures safety by providing consistent, manageable material. A planer is important for students beginning to learn carpentry, but it also allows advanced students to take on complex woodworking projects. This year, woodshop students used the planer to transform reclaimed mahogany from Memorial Stadium into a beautiful Danish cabinet. A new planer would directly benefit over 200 students that take Woodshop each year.

We are grateful for all donations — no amount is too small. Thank you for supporting this essential (and fun) program at WSHS!

Questions? Contact Paul Bugala at president@wshsptsa.org

P.S. Here’s an example of what woodshop students have been doing.

Rob June 16, 2026 (9:29 am)

This is a great cause. Not everyone is meant to go to college. Wood shop an other industrial arts classes are great for getting young men an women ready for a career in the trades. Like they say if you can swing a hammer there’s always work somewhere. PS an pays well.

K to the F June 16, 2026 (9:59 am)

Donated! My kiddo won’t go there for a few years but paying it forward for current and future Wildcats!

KT June 16, 2026 (10:50 am)

Donate in honor of your high school shop teacher…what was called Industrial arts back in the 70s.

Mike penny June 16, 2026 (12:00 pm)

I’ll donate but why in the world are they thinking they need $15k that’s ridiculous. You can get a really nice powermatic brand new for $3-4k that will last another 30 years. Something isn’t being managed correctly over there just like at Seattle central

Westieeeee June 16, 2026 (1:17 pm)

THIS
Jethro Marx June 16, 2026 (3:09 pm)

The picture on the donation page is a 24” 10hp Grizzly, it looks like it goes for $15k while an equivalent Powermatic is around $23k. Whether they need that much size and power is an open question but it’s certainly a better choice than their old one, assuming that is the SAC 63s in the blog photo. That planer is giving more of a “when it needs servicing we pay for a technician to fly in from Italy and argue with it in a mashup of Italian and gcode” kind of vibe.

Grizzly started in Bellingham I think, although they (and Powermatic) are both certainly selling white label machines from china by now.

If any kids in the woodworking program end up working in the field they’ll be far better served by buying a few 30-40 year-old planers off of Craigslist and learning to service them as well as use them.

Jeff June 16, 2026 (12:14 pm)

With the amount of money/property taxes collected by SPS each year – and the crazy dollars per student that is spent – I can’t believe there isn’t $15,000 to replace a needed piece of equipment for woodshop. It’s literally criminal.

Wsres June 16, 2026 (9:11 pm)

Property taxes collected go to the state, then dole them back out evenly to districts across the state so Seattle have higher costs, but they are getting the same money per student as a small eastern Washington school district .

A Worthy Cause June 16, 2026 (10:11 pm)

Donated! My son is a senior who has benefited from this fantastic woodworking program the past two years. Great shop, wonderful teacher — worth our support.

Conjuntion Junction June 17, 2026 (8:54 am)

Maybe all the donors should go into a “naming” raffle. The person that gets drawn from the entries gets to name the planer, like Planey Mc Planer.

Jim P. June 17, 2026 (12:40 pm)

I know little about power tools but 15K seems awfully high.

Paul Savino June 17, 2026 (10:27 pm)

I would like to reach out to you all and speak to this. My name is Paul Savino and I’m the Residential Carpentry teacher at West Seattle High School. It’s an unenviable situation that we find ourselves in this year. The machine in that rather unflattering picture is an SAC Italian made 24” planer. For 26 years, it was one of the hardest working tools in our shop. It helped, in my past 15 years as a teacher, over 4,000 students build live edge tables, chairs, shelving, guitars, a 3/4 scale My Neighbor Totoro cosplay, jewelry boxes and apparently, things too numerous to mention. The fact is, it is worn out. It has served with honor and now its watch is ended. We need a machine that will not only stand up to use, but abuse. The smaller (around $4,000) machines, while great for a smaller shop situation, will NOT stand up to 135 students a DAY learning how to use them. I don’t like the fact that I am having to ask for help from anyone outside of the district in order to pay for this. My Italian-Catholic Guilt-O-Meter is off the charts over the notion that it would be shouldered by our families. Words cannot express how much I appreciate those of you who’ve already donated. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, sincerely. I don’t envy the decisions that our district leaders are having to make in order to help us ALL succeed as a whole. The budget shortfall from years past is going to hurt us now, and they just couldn’t make this happen. This is why we reached out to our community. The old adage is, “I am too poor to buy bad tools.” I want to make sure that whatever we get, it’s going to last for another 26 years at least. That way, we don’t have to do this again anytime soon (or ever). I have shopped around for the best deal and the best maintenance package to support it. This is a good machine that we are looking at. I humbly beg your help and I appreciate your support and understanding. This is for my unbelievable students, who continue to surprise me every single day with their skill and ingenuity. Thank you so much. I invite you to check out the quality of the student work. It’s being posted to several of the WSHS instagram pages and is astounding. Btw, I think the “name our machine” idea is pure gold.

Paul Savino June 18, 2026 (2:29 am)

I apologize for the lack of sentence breaks. It’s what I get for posting this from my phone.
- Sue D. June 19, 2026 (1:28 pm)
  
  Check your school email. I sent you a message.