On Monday morning, a group of six construction workers rolled out their tools and took up work on a three-bedroom house in Woodside. The big rush? Get the roof finished before Christmas vacation.
The construction team is part of Wood River High School's Residential Construction Academy, a two-year program designed to teach college- or career-bound students residential carpentry skills. They also learn safe work practices and a sound work ethic.
Students completing the program will have earned Home Builders Institute and OSHA certifications. They will be prepared to enter the construction industry workforce or continue with advanced studies at the community college or university level.
Wood River juniors Tommy Logan and Michael Whalen took a break from leveling a roof joist to comment on the work at hand. Both students plan to attend college.
"This is so much better than a classroom," Logan said. "It's hands-on work. You are moving around rather than just sitting there."
Whalen said he wasn't sure if he would work in the construction trades after high school. "But at least I will know what it's like to build a house," he said.
Juniors Colton Seely, Zack Sjoberg, Teagan Foster and Chauncey McGraw were also wearing tool bags, climbing on scaffolds and shoring up rafters on Monday.
These students earn elective credits when they are on the job, but the actual on-the-job experience they are getting today is something they could never find in the classroom.
Prior to building the house, some of them worked on bus shelters for Mountain Rides and a series of small, private projects.
"We've moved on to bigger things," said site foreman and Wood River instructor Michael Walsh as he watched Seely and Sjoberg attach a soffet to some rafter ends.
"Two years is a big commitment for these kids, when you consider all the other academic commitments they have."
Walsh traded his position as a social studies teacher for a tool bag four years ago when he decided to work at the academy. Between teaching gigs he gained 10 years experience in the building trades, but he calls in professional builders from time to time for what he calls "head scratching moments."
The 1,250-square-foot residence the students are building is the first of three homes in Woodyard Place subdivision, named after Jim Woodyard, a Wood River Valley building contractor who was instrumental in getting a hands-on, residential construction program into the high school curriculum.
Woodyard died in 2003 in an airplane accident near the summit of Lookout Mountain, southeast of Bellevue.
In 2003, Carey High School began a residential construction program based on Woodyard's dream. Wood River High School followed suit two years later.
The property at Woodyard Place is owned by the Blaine County School District. When the first home sells, the profits will be rolled into building a second and third home. All proceeds will go toward expanding the academy program, including the purchase of construction materials, tools and equipment repair.
The academy estimates the home could sell on the open market for as much as $500,000.
Architectural and Mechanical Design Academy instructor Kevin Lupton said most of the academy students go into the construction trades right out of high school.
"The contractors in the valley hire them because they know what they are getting," he said.
Construction of the first Woodyard Place residence marks the first time the Architectural and Mechanical Design and the Residential Construction academies have worked together.
Lupton's Architectural and Mechanical Design Academy students get experience doing working drawings, residential and commercial modeling, and mechanical design.
Woodyard Place was granted final plat approval in April after four members of the Architectural and Mechanical Design Academy spent four months researching and analyzing city codes, drawing architectural plans and presenting the package to the council for a vote.
After the plans were approved, the presenters received a round of applause from the council.
"These academies prepare kids for college as well as for jobs right out of high school," said Lupton. "Our goal is to apply a curriculum to real-life experience."
Wood River High School senior Raul Salinas takes a sheet of chip board from instructor Michael Walsh. The two men are working in the Residential Construction Academy on a two-year program to build a house from start to finish.
