SALE CREEK — For the seniors in Sale Creek Middle/High’s construction program, the opening of the school’s new career and technical education building marked the culmination of years of work.
The new construction building, where Hamilton County officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday, was built by students.
“This building stands as a powerful example of what career and technical education can do,” Principal LeAnn Welch said. “It gives students authentic, hands-on experience and helps them prepare for meaningful futures in the world of construction and beyond.”
The new construction building includes a workshop, classroom, electrical room and tool space. It also features a massive, roll-up door that’ll allow students to build a tiny home from the ground up inside the space before moving it elsewhere, Welch said.
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Sale Creek Middle/High opens new construction building built by students
Before now, the school’s construction program didn’t have a dedicated space. Instead, the program floated between different places on campus, and students worked on projects outside, Welch said.
“That’s also what makes it so cherished, is that they can actually learn and work in their own space and take pride in it,” she said in an interview. “Not just be this random group outside working on a tiny home.”
Work on the new building began in 2020 before taking a pause due to the pandemic. Tennessee’s Innovative School Models program — a state grant meant to increase opportunities for career readiness and student success — helped propel the project forward.
Around 300 students worked on the building during that time, Welch said.
“This project has been years in the making, with a few delays along the way, sometimes months, sometimes years,” said Ron Cox, Sale Creek’s construction teacher. “But through it all, our students showed up ready to work, ready to learn and ready to move forward. They dug footings; warmed, poured and finished concrete; framed walls; installed insulation and metal siding; hung and finished sheetrock, primed and painted trim, doors and windows.”
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As juniors, the construction program’s current seniors got to start applying what they’d learned in the earlier grades by working on the building. At that point, the building had framing and metal on the outside put up by other students, senior Colton Accurso said, and his class had the opportunity to install insulation and drywall before sanding, priming and painting the whole structure.
“It got really hands on really quick, but it was very fun,” he said in an interview. “It was almost like a relaxing class where you could come out, chill a little bit and get some work done and actually learn something.”
Hamilton County Schools’ maintenance team served as the general contractors for the project and worked with students to ensure the building had the proper permitting to be considered an educational facility where students can earn class credit, said Olivia Bagby, the district’s Future Ready students director.
The new building is this class’s big project, senior Gabriel Hodges said, but it’ll continue to stand for future students to use.
“Going on to these new generations, they get to work on so many more projects, welding, working with metal work,” he said in an interview. “Having this building dedicated to that allows so many more opportunities for the next class and the next class that we did not get.”
Contact education reporter Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.
