Prosser Career Education Center prepares to sell student-built home

Nov. 1—NEW ALBANY — A school district is not the typical seller of a new home, but for Prosser Career Education Center, it's an important part of the process as students receive hands-on experience in building houses for future homeowners.

Every year, students from various trade programs at Prosser build a house at the Builder's Ridge subdivision near Old Payne Koehler Road in New Albany.

The project provides a valuable educational experience for students in programs ranging from construction to electrical, but it's far more than just practice.

The newest home constructed by Prosser students will soon go on the market. It is the 13th home in the Builder's Ridge neighborhood to be completed.

The space features 1,450 square feet with three bedrooms and three bathrooms, in addition to a full basement.

On Nov. 13, the New Albany-Floyd County school board will present a public hearing before the house is placed on the real estate market. The board will need to give final approval for the sale of the house in December.

Kyle Lanoue, career and technical education director at Prosser, said that the home-building program "is not a typical building project."

"It's learning how to manage materials in time, how to manage the students," he said. "It's an art and science I would say. We're thrilled at the outcomes."

Ron Zimmer, a construction technology instructor at Prosser, said he would put Prosser homes "up against anybody's houses out on the market."

Brad Spine, construction trades instructor at Prosser, said the heavy equipment students complete early work on the house such as digging the basement and other foundational work before the construction program begins.

The electrical program will complete the wiring in the house.

"It's kind of impressive to see how much goes into a house," Spine said.

Prosser students are now working on the 14th Builder's Ridge home. Junior Gabriel Stephan said it has been an "informational" process to be involved in the building of the house, and he enjoys seeing the project come together.

"It gives you a lot of self-pride that you're seeing something you're working on be able to go a step further and give someone a really nice place," he said. "My favorite part is the rough carpentry, like when you're marking out the layouts and building everything and setting everything up."

Zimmer said students have recently learned how to lay out walls and frame houses, and they "take that right on over to the house."

"Within a week's time as far as the juniors, they will have framed up pretty much the entire house," he said. "So basically we learn it in shop, and we take it to the outdoor classroom — the house — and we make it come alive."

When Prosser finishes up a house, people call to ask when it will hit the market," Spine said.

"It's cool to see how much interest there is in it," he said.

The program uses high-quality materials for the houses, and Prosser has high standards for the homes.

"There are no expenses spared or quality of workmanship spared," Spine said. "If anything's not done as correctly as we want it, it gets redone until it is." We've got high-dollar Andersen windows in it. We've got it spray-foamed for high efficiency."

Zimmer said Prosser conducts a performance test to understand the average heating and cooling cost of the house.

"So far on these 1,500 to 1,700 square feet homes, the average heating bill has been between $100 and $115 a month," he said.

Homeowners have praised the efficiency of the homes, Spine said.

"People will call us and they will just say how excited they are that their utility bill over the summer was less than $100," he said.

Mike Bauerla, the electrical instructor at Prosser, not only guides students in the home-building process, but he also lives in one of the Builder's Ridge homes. He bought the home in 2018.

"My students wired the house, and of course building trades built it," he said. "I didn't know I was going to buy it at the time. It was really at the end of the build that my wife and I were looking for a house, and I went out for dinner one night and just happened to show her the house, and she really liked it. Long story short, we ended up buying it."

Like Zimmer, he would "put the quality of the home up against any other home in the community."

"I could have bought a house anywhere in the community, but I chose to buy a Prosser build home," Bauerla said.

The hands-on experience is a key part of skill retainment, he said.

"Getting out there and having that experience of building a physical structure and of course my students wiring the structure — that's the ultimate way," he said. "That's a scientific fact that individuals will retain what they've learned far better if they experience it and ultimately help teach others."

The revenue from the sale will help Prosser support the costs of building the next house, which is already underway. Lanoue said the program "more than pays for itself."

"It generates a little revenue that goes back to tools and equipment and vehicles," he said. "It keeps the program revenue positive."

Lanoue said the school plans to present an open house as the home goes on the market.

The property was appraised at around $340,000 and $380,000, according to Spine. The district will work with Semonin Realtors to sell the home.

Prosser Principal Nancy Campbell said Prosser's house-building program "brings everything together."

"For me, it's not only a way to showcase to the community what our students are capable of [doing], but it's also a testament of the skill they learn here through the program to be able to put that together," she said. "It's very rare that you have a high school program where they're able to take what they learned in the classroom and then have people who purchase and live in [the homes they built] for years and years."