High school students are building a future in Mt. Pleasant

The Mt. Pleasant High School Building Trades Program builds homes in and around Mt. Pleasant. They are currently working on a home that is being built at 603 N. Carrol Ave. There will be a second home built nearby on the lot that will face Cedar Lane.

“The home that is being built is about 1,225 square feet,” said Building Trades Program teacher Colby Newman. “It is a three bedroom, slab home. Pretty much like most of the homes in that area.”

“This program that these homes are being under has been in place since the 1980s,” said Newman. “Some of the Realtors, and other individuals saw the need to teach trade skills in the area, and if we did not teach people how to build and work on homes, that we were not going to have anyone here to continue the trades.”

“There is a nonprofit organization that oversees everything that we do,” said Newman. “We are very fortunate that we had community support, way back in the 80s, to do what we do now.”

Lots are purchased through the nonprofit, and the school does the work of getting the homes built.

“We have built a number of homes in the Bell subdivision, there are homes throughout town that have been built with this program,” said Newman. “When the students come to the high school as a freshman, they enroll in my woodworking classes.

“I like for the students in the program to have at least two years of woodworking experience. That way they are learning the tools and the safety that is involved.”

“They also need to learn the planning stage that is involved in completing a project,” said Newman. “It can be the least favorite part, but they start early on to see the importance of it. They take it very seriously when they get into the trades program. It will keep them from failing on a project.”

The trades class is a seniors only class. It is a concurrent enrollment class with Southeastern Community College. The students get credit for carpentry classes with SCC. When the program is complete, the students will have 12 credits with SCC.

“This year, I have 11 students that make up the crew,” said Newman. “They really get to do a lot.”

“I encourage the students to take an electricity class,” said Newman. “I also recommend that they take construction tech that I offer, that teaches them an introduction to construction. They also have the opportunity to get an OSHA-10 card. That is a real leg up when just starting out in the workforce.”

“The students do A to Z in these homes,” said Newman. “The only thing that they do not do lay the carpet in the bedrooms, but they do all of the other flooring. They also do not do the main electrical connection. And we do not do the plaster finish on the walls. They will hang the sheet rock and the prep work, but the finish work is contracted out for that job.”

“They get close to three hours a day to work at the homes,” said Newman. “It is amazing how much work they can accomplish in a days’ worth of work.”