Student Built Homes, Back in Business

Churchill County School District Board of Trustees heard a presentation last week about the student-built homes program on Discovery Drive. In the past, the project had been run to build one home a year and had been very successful, according to the attorney for the district, Sharla Hales. Louie Mori, the longtime high school building trades teacher, and his students would go to the site to work on the homes throughout the year. At the end of each year, the home would sell for a good amount of money that would then fund the house for the following year. “Year after year until Mori retired, and the program has not been implemented for the past few years,” said Hales.  

She explained that the community and the board have expressed a strong desire for increased CTE opportunities. “The district has a sum of money sitting in the student-built house account, about $270,000, and there are vacant lots ready to be built on. One thing the superintendent and the board has had on the radar the past few years has been to get this program up and running,” she said. 

Principal Tim Spencer explained that through the work of the Business Advisory Council, the idea was passed around of partnering with local builder, David Dakin, owner of Stillwater Homes, to build a home. “As I see it, it would be nearly impossible for any of our construction teachers, current or future, to do more than what we're doing. This would be an offset, that program would feed this home-building opportunity." 

After meetings with Dakin, Hales, Spencer, and other members of the school district, a plan was born and presented to the board of trustees. Not only will the original program be put in place, but it will be expanded to include the drafting teacher developing the plans and the building department producing 3D models for the students to select which home to build. 

“You have in your board book a proposed independent contractor agreement with David Dakin of Stillwater Homes,” said Hales. “To be clear, the construction and CTE teachers at the high school have full schedules and are doing a good job. We expect they would work very collaboratively with Mr. Dakin to get the home built. There are several places in the draft agreement where it’s called on them to work closely together.” Dakin will serve as the general contractor for the building projects, with him and the students choosing materials and the district paying the costs for those.  

“This opportunity will not be just a job site opportunity,” said Spencer. “It’s start to finish, students will get more than they ever have and understand how to bid a job, how to print it, not just going to the site. We are looking at how we can integrate our math, our English and communication, and writing skills along with this class. It is a big-picture opportunity.” 

Trustee Joe McFadden said he was in full support of the opportunity to partner with a local contractor and rebuild the school’s construction program. He did have questions regarding what supports would be available to Dakin in terms of behavior issues, Individual Education Plans, and inclusive services that are required of the district. Spencer is working with staff on several supports including working with new and veteran teachers including a coaching design model.  

Trustee Matt Hyde asked Hales to explain why with a bid like this the district was not required to go out to bid.  

“It’s really a personal services contract, which are an exception to public bidding,” said Hales. 

“I think it’s a good idea,” said Hyde, “and I’m in support of it.” 

Dakin would obtain a sub-license and would be the supervisor onsite at the building site. “He will act as an instructor in the classroom as well as onsite,” said Spencer. 

“Knowing that CTE is a priority,” said Trustee Julie Guerrero-Goetsch, “I just want to commend you on your creative thinking on this, I think it is wonderful and I’m excited about this opportunity and commend you for your work on it.”  

Trustee Kathryn Whitaker said she is excited to see this come before the board. “I’m looking forward to seeing what happens, we’ve talked about it a lot and we appreciate the efforts of you and your staff in making this happen. Make sure he gets what he needs,” she said.  

Trustee Greg Malkovich asked how many students would be in the program and Spencer said there would be two programs, juniors/seniors and freshmen/sophomores, with the opportunity to do five-week sessions with double blocks for 192 minutes per block.  

The board approved a $70,000 contract with Dave Dakin to serve for the 2023-24 school year as general contractor for a student-built house and as supervisor/instructor of the students who will be building the house.