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Garrett students construct homes for needy families
By Shelia Watson
Contributing Writer
Students at Garrett Academy of Technology wrapped up the first semester of the 2006-2007 school year by completing a hands-on construction project that will house a North Charleston family.
The house is the fourth completed by students involved in the Garrett Apprenticeship Training and Education, or GATE, program, said Butch Clift, craft-worker training consultant for Associated General Contractors of America.
The GATE program began in 1998 when several members of Garrett’s teaching and administration staff, along with business and industry leaders, formed a nonprofit organization to oversee the construction project, said Clift, who helped organize the program.
The nonprofit group raised money to purchase a vacant lot adjacent to Garrett’s campus, where the houses are built before being moved to their permanent locations where the owners take up residence.
“It’s great having this property right next to the school,” Clift said. “The students can walk out the back door and get to work, so transporting them isn’t an issue.”
The focus of Garrett, one of Charleston County School District’s magnet schools, is applied technology, an interdisciplinary approach to education in which academics and trades are interwoven in the learning process. In addition to the basic high school curriculum, Garrett offers programs in 18 different vocations, from plumbing to graphic arts to health care.
The GATE projects have allowed the school’s construction cluster to take up building homes for the needy as both an instructional process and a humanitarian effort. The school partners with the city of North Charleston and the business community to complete each project, which takes two years and includes procurement of materials and construction.
“The students are on a block schedule, so every other day they’re able to spend up to three hours working on the house,” Clift said.
More than 100 students learn the ins and outs of construction by completing the carpentry, electrical, plumbing, HVAC and other work on the houses. The students are supervised by Garrett’s instructors, who are masters in their trades as well as certified teachers.
After the initial purchase of land and donations of materials to complete the first house, the GATE project became self-supporting. The nonprofit organization sells each house to the city of North Charleston for $62,000, which is used to purchase materials for the next house.
The funds pay for everything except labor, Clift said.
“Even though a lot is donated, there’s still material to buy,” he said. “And we have to have insurance just like everybody else (on construction projects). So the money covers those things. But as for labor costs, everyone’s a volunteer on this job. The only ones that get paid are the (subcontractors) we have to get for certain tasks, and even then, when they see that it’s a nonprofit organization and that it’s for a good cause, they often donate time and material.”
The subcontractors complete work that cannot be done by the school, including certain carpentry, masonry and flooring details, Clift said.
“The good thing is that every house makes enough money to carry on to the next house, so we don’t have to spend time raising funds,” said Clift. “We do take donations if anyone wants to contribute, but it’s good that we can spend our time teaching the skills and crafts to the students rather than have them spending time on fundraising.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provides the money for the city of North Charleston to purchase the homes, which go to households with a low to moderate income, defined as below 80% of median income for the area. Recipients are selected on a first-come, first-served basis by the city of North Charleston’s community development board.
North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey will give the current GATE house to a family during a housewarming ceremony in January.
The next GATE house project will begin in August, when the school will partner for the first time with the building instructors and trades program at Trident Technical College.
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