Juniors and seniors in the Board of Cooperative Educational Services program from Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake, Lake Placid and Long Lake, led by their teacher Clarence Brockway, have been cutting wood boards, metal sheets and vinyl siding; running electric wires and plumbing lines; and installing windows, doors and heating on a 280-square-foot house on wheels. They’re learning skilled trades, teamwork and life lessons along the way.

For seven years BOCES students have built these homes in Brockway’s class, after he noticed a tiny home fad growing. Last year’s was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, but students returned this year to finish the job. This will be the sixth house to come out of the class.

“The design for every single house always changes,” Tupper Lake senior Preston Duval said. “Nothing is mirrored. We start from basically scratch and get a brand-new design, brand-new layout.”

Brockway, who works as a contractor in the summer, guides the students, but he said the main brunt of the work is their duty. Students draft the blueprints, with Brockway explaining how best to organize the house. He understands how to balance the weight over the wheels and meet tiny housing codes.

Students at the Adirondack Educational Center install a door in the tiny home they built over the past two years. This home is now near completion and will be put up for auction soon. (Provided photo — Jess Collier

“The students basically build these houses,” he said. “They really do almost everything.”

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Making a house a home

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The tiny house will be put up for sale on Auctions International next month, and bidding on the unit will start. They usually go for around $19,000, Brockway said, about breaking even with the $18,000 or so that goes into making them. Any additional money from the sale goes back into the BOCES budget.

Students at the Adirondack Educational Center work on the roof of a tiny home their class is now close to finishing. Students said they learned trade skills, as well as life skills. (Provided photo — Clarence Brockway)

Brockway said the homes could feasibly end up anywhere in the world. He said often the final product is something the students are proud of and wouldn’t mind living in themselves.

“They want it. They want it to go right in their backyard,” Brockway said. “The excitement is off the wall.”

Tupper Lake students at the shop Tuesday said they hope their house will help someone. Senior Isaiah Gallagher said he wants their creation to go to “someone that deserves it, that really needs it.”

Tupper Lake senior Tanner Lanthier said he does not want it to go to “some rich person in the South that wants to buy this just to look fancy.”

Tiny houses built by previous AES classes now rest as far away as Maine and Rochester, New York, or as close as Malone and Lake Placid.

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Life skills

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Brockway said he tries to prepare students for life, whatever they choose to do. Along with lessons in trigonometry and machinery, he tries to sprinkle in lessons in responsibility and kindness.

Some of his students go to study these trades, work on solar farms or use the skills in the military, he said. Once students graduate, he “friends” them on Facebook to keep up with what they’re doing with their lives.

Lanthier said he will attend classes at North Country Community College after graduation. One day he wants to run for a federal elected office. On Tuesday he was already pitching his campaign, as well as the tiny house, telling this reporter, “You should buy it!”

He joined the BOCES Building Trades program because his father and grandfather both do carpentry and he wanted to learn more hands-on skills. While he picked up the expected carpentry, plumbing and electrical skills, he also picked up some more abstract, unconventional skills along the way.

“I’m glad I did it because it’s been a helpful experience for learning how to communicate with others,” Lanthier said. “I’m not exactly an extroverted person.”

He said teamwork and clear communication are needed in the shop.

Duval said he joined the program because he wants to do electrical work after graduation. He plans to attend Navy boot camp after graduation, with hopes of working as a military submarine electrician for a decade or so.

“This is somewhat a step toward that,” Duval said.

Duval and his fellow classmates are also now certified by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration after taking a 10-hour-long test. He said this certification is attractive to employers.

Gallagher said when he joined the program he was “forced into it at first” but said he’s enjoying the work now. He most enjoys cutting boards and working the various saws in the shop.

Gallagher said he hopes to study marine biology at Boston University but expects he will use the skills he learned at the Adirondack Educational Center for house work and side jobs.

Brockway wished he could have students for in his classes for more than two years.

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Features

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The house is 8-and-a-half feet wide, 24 feet long and 12 feet high, with an 8-by-7-foot fold-up deck on the back. It has electric heat and a hot water heater and is insulated. The large back window is one-quarter-inch plexiglass so it won’t crack when the house is towed down the road.

The outside has a barn theme, and the inside has a modern, wooden aesthetic.

Previous homes have also included solar and wind power, but Brockway said building material prices have gone up around 70% in the past year, in part because of the pandemic.

“Due to the recent price hikes, we couldn’t afford to do anything really fancy-schmancy here,” Lanthier said.

Brockway said this unit took around $18,000 of material, but estimated the material is now worth $30,000 after price hikes.

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COVID

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Duval said the hardest part of construction this year was “finding the time to do it with COVID.”

Multiple periods of remote school learning this year have held up work. Brockway said they’ve had to adapt to rotating groups of students quarantining after possible exposures.

BOCES programs are hard to conduct remotely, Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES Public Information Specialist Jess Collier said. She was glad the conservation, automotive and culinary programs are all back in-person. Unlike at many other schools in the area, AES classes are held five days a week.

“We have enough room in our classes that we can keep kids distanced enough,” Collier said. All of our work is so hands-on it’s really, really hard to do remotely.”

Masks are worn throughout classes, but Brockway said students with glasses are allowed to bring them below their nose when using saws or other power tools. It’s better to see clearly and keep all their fingers, he said.

He said if someone wants to get rich, they should make a mask or glasses that actually make good on a promise to not fog up.

Brockway said the pandemic has been difficult for students, some of whom were already working through hard home lives.

“A lot of people are hurting, especially my students. Thank God they got that stimulus,” he said. “That definitely helps them out. Some of those families need that. They’ve had no income for a year.”