Sherwood High students built their third house, which sold Tuesday (photos)

If you think a term paper that lasts all semester is a never-ending assignment, consider the two years students at Sherwood High School put into building a house. A real house. A real house that is sold to real people, who then live there. For years.

On Tuesday, the third house built by Sherwood High students closed escrow. Like the other two before it, this dwelling went on the market at the end of the school year and found a buyer over summer vacation.

With the first two projects, architecture students helped design the homes while teens in interior design classes selected the finishes. In the third house, they contributed ideas to a purchased house plan.

In all of the projects, juniors and seniors in the advanced construction classes spent their 70-minute class framing walls, installing windows and doors, and laying hardwood floors. Students in the environmental science classes were busy enhancing the landscape.

When the last nail was hammered, the community was invited to an open house over Memorial Day Weekend, where a barbecue meal was served and students gave tours of the house they built.

"It's a project the whole community is so proud of," said Natalie Bay of McCabe Real Estate Group/Keller Williams Portland Premiere. Her boss, Todd McCabe, has listed all three of the school's Bowmen Houses, named after the school's mascot and athletic teams.

Teacher Jon Dickover launched the program in 2011 after lamenting that his students no longer had the chance to get major construction work under their belts before graduating.

He recalled that the high school sponsored a home building project In 1981. Then a recession hit, budgets were slashed and the program shut down. Thirty years later, the program returned, and girls and boys enrolled.

This year, the 16 students in the elective class, called the Bowmen House, were evenly split by gender.

So far, each project has earned an A.

Bowmen House #1 sold in 2013 for its full listing price, $309,500, with a $7,700 commission waived by the district's realtor, McCabe Real Estate Group, a gesture the firm continues.

Sherwood School District loaned the high school about $250,000 for the first project. The home sale repaid the loan and funded the two-year construction of a second house that shares a driveway.

That house, the 1,926-square-foot Bowmen House #2, sold for $375,000 in 2015.

Then Bowmen House #3, in the heart of Old Town Sherwood, sold for $473,000 on Sept. 12. It was the largest, at 2,123 square feet. A lot next door has already been purchased for Bowmen House #4, which should be completed by 2019.

Dickover oversees the construction program while teaching a full load of classes in the wood shop. He said his students learn trade skills and a work ethic that will serve them in whichever profession they enter.

"These are transferable skills," he said Wednesday, "whether you're building a house or in lumber or real estate sales, or whatever, you benefit from knowing to put your phone away when you're at work as well as other hard and soft skills we teach."

Many districts see the perks of ambitious construction programs. Forest Grove High School builds a Viking House every year and other schools have programs to build or remodel full size houses as well as tiny houses. Dickover says he has been visited by other school districts interested in expanding their programs.

In addition to hands-on learning, students watch pros at work. A contractor set up the foundation for each of the Bowmen Houses, then licensed plumbers, roofers and electricians arrived on the scene, some of whom discounted their fees.

Sherwood High School principal Ken Bell sees other benefits to the program, inside and beyond the classroom.

"The best thing about the Bowmen House projects is that large numbers of our students get to apply their learning in the real world in a tangible project that benefits others and becomes part of our community," he said.

Over the two-year project, students learn how to deal with city codes as well as solve problems, collaborate, and set and meet deadlines. They also become experienced in the importance of quality materials and labor, and being consistent each day, he said.

"I think what makes our project unique is the sheer number of different students and classes that contribute to the final product over two years," he said. "It is truly a school-wide effort."

-- Janet Eastman

jeastman@oregonian.com
503-799-8739
@janeteastman

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