‘This is such a great partnership’: District 211 program giving students experience in home construction

A new educational partnership in Schaumburg is being celebrated for giving area high school students a hands-on experience in the construction trades.

The partnership includes Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211, Nitti Development and the BuilderEDU curriculum, which is the brainchild of attorney and Conant High School graduate Jim McKenzie.

A physical manifestation of the partnership is the BuilderEDU Classroom & Laboratory temporarily occupying one of the 149 single-family home lots of Nitti’s Summit Grove subdivision on the 62 acres the firm bought from District 211 in 2020.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony touting the new partnership was held there Thursday.

The house students from Schaumburg, Conant and Hoffman Estates high schools are currently learning on began construction next door to the lab at the start of the school year. It is expected to be completed by summer. Students are expected to help with construction of a second house in the subdivision as well.

“It’s all about the kids doing more work,” Schaumburg High School building construction teacher Jay Sullivan said. “That was the vision of this partnership.”

Conant High School senior Dylan Wyka has long been interested in being an electrician, and the program is teaching him more about that specific trade along with others.

“I think the framing is pretty cool, too,” he said of what he’s learned so far. “It’s pretty cool how we’re able to partner with a home developer. It’s a great way to work with people and learn about construction.”

Impressed by the house’s progress, Wyka knows it’s at a slower pace for the sake of on-site teaching. He’s hoping to see it complete before he graduates.

The site was long held for a sixth District 211 school that was never built. Nitti paid $17.7 million for the land.

District 211 board members and staff considered many options how the land might still benefit students in some way.

The BuilderEDU program is the latest of those ways, in addition to money from the sale that’s been spent on a public address system and auditorium improvements, the cooling of applied technology areas and other similar upgrades at all five of the existing high schools.

McKenzie said his inspiration for BuilderEDU was student debt concerns, the dropout rate at four-year universities and the rising average age of the labor force in the building construction trades.

“I call it the trifecta of badness,” he said. “It’s just incredible that we have those three things happening.”

Also in attendance Thursday were the four Conant coaches McKenzie described as his lifelong inspirers — James Cartwright, Merv Miller, Richard Redlinger and Peggy Scholten — after whom streets of the Summit Grove subdivision have been named.

He also acknowledged the students present and delivered an emphatic message to their parents.

“I’m going to let you know your students are amazing,” he told them. “Congratulations! You’ve raised some really phenomenal people.”

District 211 Director of College and Career Readiness Michele Napier said BuilderEDU follows the district’s mission for student excellence.

“They’re learning next-generation building technology,” Napier said. “This is such a great partnership. I think career and technical education should be embedded in everything that we do.”