Blaine County students building three-bedroom, two-bath house in Residential Construction Academy

Students in the Blaine County School District's Residential Construction Academy are building a three-bedroom, two-bath house on school grounds that will be finished, sold and transported to a permanent foundation, a staff member said.

The program, which a staff member said has operated "for about 20 years," involves students from Cary High School and Wood River High School building fully finished houses as part of a classroom-to-worksite project. "We are currently building a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home here on-site," the staff member said.

The project team worked with a local architect and a structural engineer on design, the staff member said, so the house could be transported to a permanent foundation after it is sold. "We spent a huge amount of time with a local architect, a local structural engineer designing this house to be transported to its permanent foundation," the staff member said. Construction on the school site includes exterior siding, doors and windows and interior drywall, paint and carpet.

Students described the class as a hands-on elective. "It was just one of those things where I thought it would be really good thing to learn later on and learn how to do," one student said. Another student described the teacher, identified in the meeting as Mr. Blacker, saying, "Mr. Blacker is very, he's very much perfectionist. So it's a lot of going back and making sure you do everything right the first time and really being very meticulous." The same student said the experience gave them a different perspective on how to do construction work.

The staff member said a previously completed student-built house from the program is being rented by the school district to district employees. "The house that I finished, three years ago now, is actually being rented out to school district employees. I believe we have two teachers living in it and they work for the district and they live in the house that their students built," the staff member said.

Program speakers said once the current house is finished and sold, the class can begin building another house on the same site. The meeting segment contained description and student remarks only; no formal board actions or funding amounts for the project were discussed in the provided transcript.