Before the first bell at Frankford Township School, students are already taking on a practical challenge: figuring out whether an everyday item can be repaired. The morning Bulldog Repair crew arrives before class to work on equipment brought from the school and local community. Its current list includes go-karts, pencil sharpeners, laminators, fans and furniture. News 12 New Jersey reported on the students’ early start and the variety of jobs on Sept. 28.
Based in Branchville, New Jersey, Bulldog Repair is a student-run small business at Frankford Township School District. Teacher Mr. Reinertsen wrote on the district’s official live feed that students volunteer to come in early every day and that the morning crew has been growing. The district says the returning program is open to students in grades five through eight.
Students practice working with their hands, interacting with customers and solving practical problems, the district says. During the previous school year, the crew repaired items ranging from school desks to car parts. The newer list is similarly broad: a pencil sharpener and a fan call for different troubleshooting than a go-kart or a piece of furniture. The district names the kinds of jobs students have handled, but does not claim every item can be fixed.
The early-morning crew is one part of the program. The district says students can also meet Wednesdays and Thursdays during seventh period. Before-school sessions run from 8 to 8:30 a.m. Community members interested in a repair can contact Mr. Reinertsen or talk with a Bulldog Repair student about checking in an item. That schedule gives the work a regular place in the school week. A September post also gave Room 35, the Technology room, as a drop-off point for community repair requests.
The program’s first year shows both the amount of work and its limits. In a May year-end update, the district reported that over six months students had repaired 131 items from the school and community. The district listed 16 more in progress, nine awaiting parts and 17 it could not fix. Those are four separate outcomes: 131 repaired, 16 in progress, nine waiting and 17 unfixable. The figures describe 173 items across those categories, but only 131 had been repaired. At the end of May, the district said it would pause new intake for summer so students could finish items already in progress and pack away tools.
The district says donations from repairs go directly into the Technology department’s parts budget to keep Bulldog Repair running. In its May update, the school also said the work raised money that helped fund technology and student programs, including ADVEX, Technology Club, Video Productions, the greenhouse and engineering technology courses. It reported that the funds also paid for trophies and signs for local events such as the Community Car Show and Community Day.
That mix of jobs gives students practice beyond the repair itself. The district describes hands-on work, customer interaction and problem-solving as goals of the student-run business. The previous year’s results suggest students also encounter the limits of repair: some jobs need more time or parts, and some cannot be completed. Those outcomes are part of a working shop.
In a September post announcing that Bulldog Repair was back, the district invited students in grades five through eight to join and described the weekly schedule. A newer post focuses on the morning crew, saying it has been growing and listing items waiting for attention. News 12 then reported on Sept. 28 that students were coming in before school to work on repairs for residents. Its September return post also invited residents to bring in simple build requests, alongside items that need fixing.
For the students, the workshop turns classroom skills into useful work for the school and its neighbors. The district’s May records show that not every repair succeeds: some items remain in progress, some wait for parts and some cannot be fixed. What the program offers is a chance to work through real requests, practice communicating with customers and learn how to approach an unfamiliar problem.
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