By VICKI URBANIK

Students in Chesterton High School’s building trades program have learned how to build storage facilities, an office building, and even an energy-efficient new home that recently sold for $287,500.

The building trades program has grown in popularity in recent years and now has about 30 enrolled, said instructor Jeff Larson, who gave a report on the program at this week’s Duneland School Board meeting.

The students in the program, all of whom must be juniors or seniors, learn the construction trade by hands-on work in the community. The students have built a storage building and an office building at Dogwood Park. They also worked on the construction of the Nature Building at Sunset Hill Farm. The students also did the framing work for a new house on 22nd Street.

More recently, students have been doing renovation work through the United Way of Porter County for those who suffered flood damage.

A big project that the class took on last school year was construction of a house in Jackson Township that was made possible through a cooperative program with Kankakee Valley REMC.

Larson said the project was a “dream relationship” with REMC, which provided the class $245,000 to build the house. The students handled just about every aspect of construction themselves, using subcontractors only for the HVAC, plumbing, and electric, Larson said.

The project was a bit unusual for REMC, since most of its other cooperative projects have not been as comprehensive, but in the range of $80,000, Larson said. The house totaled 2,080 square feet, with another 280 square foot three-season room.

The house, which has a Five-Star home energy rating, was barely on the market for a month. Given the current housing market, Larson said the fact that the house sold so quickly is a testament to the workmanship of the students.

Larson said the CHS building trades program used to take in students from other schools but no longer, due to the growing demand. At some point, he said he would love to bring in a second instructor for the program.

Healthy Eating

Also at Monday’s school board meeting, Brummitt Elementary Principal Antonino Cammarata gave a report on a unique project offered to students during the recent week of ISTEP testing: Healthy breakfasts for every third and fourth grader.

The Duneland Schools already offer breakfasts for students, but the Brummitt program made a special effort to provide a healthy start to the day for every student taking the test. The program combined a nutritious breakfast, with foods that have been identified as promoting “brain power,” as well as light exercise to energize and stimulate the students before they took the ISTEP.

Participation was entirely voluntary, but Cammarata said: “I would say that we had about 95 percent of our kids eat.”

Cammarata said serving breakfast is an expensive program for schools, but the week-long project was made possible at no charge to the students thanks to donations from parents. “This was totally supported by our parents,” he said.

He also commended Duneland staff who made the breakfast program a success: Physical education teacher LuAnn Hopson and kitchen staff members Lynne Proper, Cathy Fitzmaurice, Dawn Breier, and Carrie Davis.

Posted 10/9/2008