Tiny homes, big careers: See inside the new Keller ISD program
When Audrey Giles goes to school in the morning, she doesn’t spend her first period trying to stay awake through math class, or listening to a history lecture.
At 7:40 a.m., before the bell has even rung, Giles walks through the building and approaches her very own job site, complete with tools, paint, sawdust — and the results of her hard work, a 480-square-foot tiny home with its own bathroom and kitchen.
This humble abode is the product of a new Keller ISD program that encourages students to gain real-world skills before entering the working world.
Audrey Giles was one of the first students to participate in the program. After building the tiny house from start to finish, it was sold for $40,000, according to Bodie Carroll, the Keller ISD CTE director.
The tiny house was built by roughly 100 students from four different high schools in the district, according to Louis Vazquez, an architecture and construction teacher for Keller ISD. Vazquez oversaw construction, he said, but this project was completely student-led with the guidance of their teachers and a group of local business owners.
“It’s the epitome of what CTE is, kids getting real work experience,” Vazquez said. “The kids show me that if you take a little bit of Brooklyn and Texas tenacity, you can get the job done.”
The Keller Center for Advanced Learning is the career and technical education hub for the district, according to Keller ISD spokesperson Joanna Hildebrand.
The students began construction last September, and finished the project in May.
Keller High School graduates Broden Slansky and Audrey Giles said that the program was a great learning experience for them, with lots of opportunities for leadership.
“Outside of technical skills, it’s just leadership skills,” Slansky said.“[Being] given the opportunity to work with this group of people has really shown me what it’s like to be in charge of a team.”
Giles said, “I personally really like doing hands-on work — it’s good for experience and team building. Working together with people who also haven’t done much before, we are really learning all together.”
Giles and Slansky agreed that the hardest part of the project was communicating effectively, with such a large team of people and limited class time to collaborate.
“The classes come for three hours a day, and there’s about four different ones, so the communication behind those is almost nonexistent. So, it’s hard picking up where the last group left off,” Slansky said.
Giles added that because there are so many trades working together, it can be difficult to make sure “everything comes together.”
Just like a real job site, the construction teacher Vazquez said, each student had a role, and each class began with a safety meeting.
The project allowed students to gain experience in valuable trades like construction, plumbing, electrical work, HVAC work, and even interior design and architecture.
Slansky served as the superintendent on the job site, and Giles was the foreman.
Giles won’t just be taking home new skills and bragging rights after the project. In the fall, she’ll be attending the University of North Texas to study construction, with scholarships she received as a result of her work on the tiny home.
One of the project’s sponsors, DPR Construction, hired Slansky — he starts his new gig on June 15.
The buyer, Zach Fusilier, was on board before the house was built. He funded the materials for the project and with the sale back to him, he’s made a return on his investment in more ways than one
“I’m blown away,” Fusilier said. “I think the experience for these kids to do this when they are 15, 16, 17 versus post-college is invaluable and very impressive.”
The project was not funded by school district dollars, said Carroll, the CTE director. It was paid for by donations to the Keller ISD Education Foundation booster club.
“Ultimately, we were able to fully fund the project through donations and the buyer and have plenty leftover to help kick-start the next project,” Carroll said.
Local vendors donated or discounted materials for the project, and some even volunteered their time and guidance to help the students through it.
Vazquez told the Star-Telegram that the hope is to eventually have students finishing two tiny homes a year. Students interested in the class must take certain construction classes before enrolling.
