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For sale: Dog sheds, picnic tables and more By Kevin Opsahl Updated: Jun 08, 2022 02:13 PM A A Lots of items built by a construction trades class at South Medford High are for sale this week Jamie Lusch / Mail TribuneBennett Bastian prepares a shed for painting at South Medford High School last Wednesday. Jamie Lusch / Mail TribuneCharlie Forrest works on a storage bench inside a remodeled school bus at South Medford High School. Growing up in Medford, South Medford High School teacher Justin Eagar lost count of the number of houses his father told him, “I worked on that house,” whenever they drove around the city together. These days, as the leader of the construction-technology department at South, Eagar is instilling in his students that sense of ownership for the things they build through the South Medford High School Builds Class. “The students get to experience the same thing — ‘one of my sheds is here; one of my picnic tables is at a local elementary school,’” Eagar said. “They get to have that involvement in the community.” The Builds course teaches construction trades to prepare students for the industry or the skills necessary to build on their own. “It’s a hands-on class,” Eagar said. “So we set up a structure where we can build things that the community needs and try to recoup some of those costs by selling them to people in the community.” This year, 200 or so students have built everything from dog houses and chicken coops, to picnic tables and school buses converted into homes. In the last week or two of the school year, they were, in fact, still building to try to finish them all before graduation. “We’re on a time crunch to sell, but they’re also on a time crunch to finish building them,” Eagar said. “We are down to the wire,” he said Tuesday, “but every project will be completed by Thursday. I am immensely proud of my current students.” Some projects have sold, but many are still available — and will be for another two weeks, he added. South Medford High School student Charlie Forest admitted, “we’re kind of in a time crunch, but we’re showing up everyday — on time — and working with the time we’ve got.” Eagar noted how his students’ hands-on learning opportunities were curtailed for a while when the COVID-19 pandemic shifted classes to virtual learning. “So now they’re in an advanced class, when they still haven’t used some of the power tools yet,” he said. “This was a crash course getting them up to speed.” Forest started taking the Builders Class his freshman year, but it was interrupted by the pandemic. Forest used that time to learn the fundamentals of construction; now he’s actually building using the principles he learned in virtual instruction. “Hitting stuff with a hammer — I really enjoy that,” Forest said. “It was a break from all of my other classes because I take honors and (advanced placement) classes that are hard on the brain, and this class is a good relief from that.” What’s more, being able to step back and see a finished product provides relief in and of itself for Forest. He appreciates the Builders Class for its giving-back component. “It obviously feels good that I’m not using all of my physical labor for nothing,” Forest said. “It’s actually going to a good cause.” Another student, Serenity Lubbers, is taking the class so she can get a career doing plumbing or electrical work. Besides overhauling a bus, she sanded, painted and put together a bunch of picnic tables during the Builders course. “It makes me feel good that I’m putting back into the community in some way, because I can’t really do much when it comes to balancing school and home life and everything,” Lubbers said. Eagar called the Builders Class “student-driven” and is the one who gets them to think like contractors. “Before they put any boards together, they have to have numbers and tell me how much it’s going to cost,” he said. “Estimating — that’s kind of the backbone of having a construction business.” Eagar told community members that he has so much confidence in his students that “the next time you call a tradesperson, it might be one of our graduates.” Next year, Eagar’s vision for the Builders Class is one in which members of the community, businesses, nonprofits and the like can make a product pitch to him and the students. “That way, students can estimate, they can plan, they can design, they can draw the blueprints and have them sold before we build them,” Eagar said. “I think it’s important that we use taxpayer funds appropriately and that we can be the best stewards of those funds as possible. I think this is the best system for that.” For more information about the class and its inventory, Eagar said anyone can contact him at [email protected] or the class’s Instagram page at smhs_builds. Reach reporter Kevin Opsahl at 541-776-4476 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @KevJourno.