MHS construction classes acquire new building foundation

Alex Schneider, Senior Editor & Reporter

The Monroe High School construction classes have decided to move on to a new project. The advanced CTE classes will now work on the site of the old Townsite Elementary School to build houses for the Monroe community. The project is being called Trojan Build.

In past years, these classes would work alongside Habitat for Humanity to build houses in the community for charity. This worked well in the short term; however, students would miss out on certain details in the building of a house due to the workers at Habitat coming and doing certain things themselves. This created a barrier and a problem for the students. They could leave the site one day to come back the next day and something new would be done to the house without their knowledge or their liking.

Construction teacher Tom Bell said he feels that the new site will give the kids more freedom to learn. “I feel like this will give the kids the freedom of doing the things they like while learning the whole process from the very beginning,” Bell said.

Monroe Public Schools bought the old elementary school to be used for the construction classes to put up multiple houses that will be sold to the community once finished.

“In April or May the district will start to put together a strategy and a price at which to sell the houses. Anyone can buy the houses, and the process is just like anyone buying a house from anyone else,” Bell said.

Originally, the construction classes didn’t work with a third party company but completely by themselves. According to Superintendent Julie Everly, the Trojan Build is Monroe’s way of getting back to their roots and giving the students more. “I am so excited to be getting back to this tradition, and using such a beloved site to build on,” Everly said.