Reno charter school celebrates completion sale of its 10th student-built home

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By Rocio Hernandez

The Nevada Independent

At the end of a small residential street in a southeastern Reno neighborhood is a recently completed 1,840 square foot home built almost entirely by local high school students.

By David Calvert/The Nevada Independent – Academy For Career Education Charter School student Tim O’Neal during an advanced building trades course with teacher Tony Clark on November 16, 2022 in Reno. (David Calvert/The Nevada Independent)

The family home at 4917 Hombre Way is the newest pride of the Academy for Career Education (ACE) High School. It is the public charter school’s 10th student house in its 20 years of training students as part of its building program.

Students who worked on the home also viewed it as a great accomplishment, especially considering the hurdles they overcame in building it, including issues with the home’s package and COVID-related setbacks.

“I’m pretty happy because I know I was involved in this and it looks really good,” said Tim O’Neil, 17, a senior at ACE High School.

From ACE High School/Courtesy – This home at 4917 Hombre Way in Reno was built by students at Academy for Career Education (ACE) High School.

Kaela Kamesch, 17, also a senior at ACE, shared this view.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to achieve with the house and I’m really pleased that we were able to complete it,” she said. “We put a lot of hard work into it.”

Their efforts literally paid off late last month when the home they helped build — complete with granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, washer and dryer — sold for nearly $530,000.

By David Calvert/The Nevada Independent – Students during an advanced building trades course with teacher Tony Clark at the Academy For Career Education Charter School in Reno on November 16, 2022. (David Calvert/The Nevada Independent)

“The completion of construction and the sale of the 10th student-built home reflects the hard work and dedication that has been a hallmark of all ACE stakeholders from day one,” said Bob DeRuse, principal of the school.

The homes that ACE students have built over the past two decades are on lands that the Washoe County School District acquired through a significant domain lawsuit in 1995 when it planned to build Donner Springs Elementary School.

Washoe County students built four houses on these lots across from the school, but that work stopped after the county halted its building program. In 2002, the district entered into an informal agreement with the then newly opened ACE High School to allow its students to do the work on the remaining properties. Once these homes were completed and sold, a portion of the proceeds went back to the district to pay for the land. The rest stayed with ACE to support the school’s survival.

“We built houses the first year just to make ends meet,” DeRuse said. “We had to sell the house and use the profit to finance the school and keep it running.”

Today, the school, with around 230 students, has expanded its curriculum to four programs: Civil Engineering, Diesel Technologies, Advanced Manufacturing and Architectural Design.

Interest in these types of educational programs has also increased in southern Nevada. In August, the Clark County School District opened a new high school, Central Technical Training Academy, offering two programs: building and construction technology and advanced manufacturing.

In August, the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority approved Southern Nevada Trades High School, which is expected to open in Las Vegas next school year. It will be modeled after ACE High School, with support from DeRuse when needed.

The schools come as the construction industry faces a shortage of more than half a million workers, according to an estimate by Associated Builders and Contractors. The national trade association for the construction industry has also noted a decline in construction workers aged 25 to 54 and a rise in older workers leaving the workforce.

It’s these types of jobs that ACE aims to prepare its students for through a variety of hands-on learning experiences. But the charter school’s claim to fame and its best-known product has always been its student-built homes, DeRuse said.

Before students can pick up their hammers, they must complete a 10-hour safety training course through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The training teaches them the basics like ladder safety and electrical hazards to watch out for. Students also complete an additional 30 hours of OSHA advanced training, which is typically required by employers, prior to graduation.

From there, the students learn everything they need to work on a construction site, e.g. B. how to use power tools, how to properly unwind extension cords and the importance of wearing the right clothing and personal protective equipment.

“The entire curriculum that I teach … will allow them to be in a position where the new employer doesn’t have to pay to send someone on some sort of specialty training,” said Tony Clark, an ACE teacher. “You’re basically ready to go.”

Once fully trained, students are ready to begin the entire home building process beginning with site preparation and pouring the foundation, framing, setting up plumbing, electrical and HVAC, installing insulation and the rest of the finishing touches inside and outside the house.

Clark estimates that 90 percent of this work is done solely by students under the guidance of teachers like him, who are licensed and supported in skills such as structural design, welding, bracing and brazing. The rest is done by subcontractors, who Clark brings in to provide the students with their technical expertise for specialized jobs like setting up a furnace or filling a new air conditioning condenser. Typically, these industry experts give students a chance to observe their work and even help out whenever possible.

“Most of the journeymen that come out pretty much have their hands free,” Clark said. “They tell the students, ‘This has to happen. That’s how we have to do it. Let’s go ahead and hold that up and screw that in and fasten that’… and that’s how my students learn.”

The project also gives the companies that work with ACE to build homes an opportunity to recruit students, Clark said.

The 10th house has been the most difficult for ACE to date. ACE had planned to build it on a portion of a lot that was considered unusable as it was roughly a third the size of the entire lot needed. Before construction could begin, construction industry partners and a property owner and developer helped the school convert the lot into a buildable residential lot, DeRuse said.

With that work completed, Clark and his students began work on the house in December 2019. Clark said it typically takes ACE students about two years to complete a home, but because the pandemic delayed their work, they were unable to complete the home by the end of the 2021-22 school year.

The Final Step: The Washoe County School Board had to approve the gift of the property to ACE, which the board of directors approved at their Oct. 25 meeting so they could sell the property.

Student Kayla Kamesch began working on the house in her sophomore year. Before the project she had some experience in electrical work because her father works in this field. But the project taught her new skills, such as installing windows, shelving, fans and lighting fixtures.

“It was fun, but also frustrating,” said Kamesch. “But we finally figured it out with the help of our teacher and the help of other students.”

Student Tim O’Neil, who began working on the house in his junior year, came to the project with no prior experience.

“I just watched the other students and my teacher do things, and then it slowly started clicking in my head,” he said. “At this point I’m pretty comfortable with what I’m doing.”

For this and the 2023-24 school year, ACE students will hone their skills by building 8 by 12 structures that resemble tiny houses but without the plumbing. Clark said the small buildings could be used as temporary housing for people in need. He expects the sheds to be ready for sale and transport by the end of April.

But the school hopes it can find new land in the future so the students can keep building houses – which may spark interest in the career field.

“I hear all the time from my industry partners that they’re always trying to bring that next group up so that when we old geezers retire, there’s a new wave of young people ready to aspire to,” Clark said.

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