The construction trades class at Crookston High School only had half the school year to work on the house they are building this year as teacher Travis Oliver is working on completing his teaching degree and will begin student teaching soon in Fertile-Beltrami.
“With my student teaching going into spring semester all my classes will be ending,” said Oliver. “I think it was successful half a year and I hope they came out with something they can take with them.”
The students had to not only fight a shortened year, but also the elements as a wet and then cold fall have slowed progress. “This is the first time we did a two-story house, we’ve done all the exterior walls on the first floor, have sheeted the garage rough which is ready for shingles,” said Oliver. “The garage is ready to be shingled right now and have started setting the rafters on the house. They are framed in and we man-handled them by hand using scaffolding when most crews would probably use a lift.”
For Oliver, the most important part in handling their first two-story house was that nobody got hurt. Oliver thinks that with a full year, the group would’ve gotten close to the normal progression heading into the summer. “We get as far as we can when we can work,” said Oliver. “The partnerships with CHEDA and Northwest Housing are great and isn’t necessarily something you see in other districts.”
CHEDA will now work throughout the spring to contract the completion of this year’s trades house said executive director Craig Hoiseth. “This year with Travis’ schedule they could only work one semester, so we’ll contract with someone this spring and probably try to sell it this summer.” Hoiseth added, “we’ll take stock of where the house is at an inventory what needs to be completed before deciding if it needs to go out on bids. We’ll work locally with the [Northwest Multi Housing] Co-op and some of their sub-contractors maybe and finish it up here this spring.”
For more on the construction trades class and all the trades classes, Oliver taught this fall tune in for Focus on Education Saturday morning.
