214@100: Building homes and futures
District 214 launched its Practical Architectural Construction program in 1971 as a six-week summer school program, allowing students to build prefabricated house sections in Lake Geneva, Wis. and lodges at Sunrise Lake Camp in Bartlett.
In 1985, the district developed its own home construction program. Since then, 25 homes have been designed, constructed and sold to community members - empowering students interested in the field an opportunity for hands-on work.
Each home's design is determined by a competition among students in the district's advanced architectural drafting courses, and students in the PAC program then work side-by-side with teachers and professional contractors to build it from the ground up - including the final installation of cabinets and windows.
Funds from the sale of the houses, which are built throughout District 214 communities, are used to support the PAC program.
"This provides a tremendous cycle of relevant learning for our students," said Dan Weidner, District 214's Director of Career and Technical Education. "We have students learning and applying design concepts, students learning and applying construction concepts they might normally never learn in a high school setting, and students showing off the home and seeing it purchased. That is education they will take with them long after they leave high school."
The PAC class takes up about three class periods, making it primarily a senior-level class. The students work on-site daily. The group's last complete project, a four-bedroom, 2½-bathroom house on Camp McDonald Road in Prospect Heights, was the culmination of two years of work by more than 50 students districtwide.
"It's definitely a good feeling when you put a lot of hard work into it," 2013 Prospect High School graduate Chris Zimmer told the Daily Herald then. "It's awesome to see it complete."
Many of the students in the program apply the skills they learned in college and beyond, majoring in such fields as construction management once they graduate high school.