Mat-Su Career and Technical High School (CTHS) began a new project during the 2024-2025 school year to improve housing options for educators in rural Alaska. This project has been made possible through partnerships with the State of Alaska, 62 Degrees North Customs, MSBSD Facilities Department, MassX, and Cruz Construction.
Trish Zugg, the MSBSD Career and Technical Education (CTE) Program Administrator, secured a grant from DEED to help construct a pole barn at CTHS that allows the building pathway students and instructors to work on the housing units throughout the school year. MSBSD Facilities worked collaboratively with MassX Construction to develop a gravel pad for the pole barn to be built on. A business partnership with Cruz Construction provided transportation for the connex shipping containers and an agricultural tent from Seward to CTHS. The pole barn was constructed by CTHS staff and the MSBSD Facilities Department under the guidance of Cruz Construction.
The project’s goal is to build a spec home by the end of this school year. The construction trades classes, as well as the GIC (Geometry in Construction) class, are working to build the one-bedroom efficiency unit. The design for the house was created by 62 Degrees North Customs, who have experience building housing units for rural Alaska. The housing unit utilizes a steel I-beam foundation with insulation blown into the tubing, making it more energy efficient. The design allows the house to be picked up with forks on a loader and easily transported from the building site to Point Mackenzie on a flatbed trailer, where it will be barged to the different rural locations.
“We are optimistic that this project will be able to be implemented at other CTE schools to alleviate the critical teacher housing shortage in rural Alaska.”
Dan Trotter, the welding teacher at Colony High School, (CHS) observed 62 Degrees North Customs as they constructed the steel foundation. Mr. Trotter hopes his classes will be able to begin creating foundations for the project beginning in the Fall of 2025. We are excited about this partnership between CHS and CTHS, which demonstrates the partnership capabilities between high schools in a true District-Wide CTE approach.
We hope to invite rural districts to view the spec home and place orders for the number of units they would like. The pole barn is large enough to safely accommodate the building of two units at a time. Mr. Wolfe and Mr. Croft, the building pathway teachers at CTHS, believe that our students can construct two units per semester. In addition, there is potential to build a larger unit, similar in size to a portable, that can have a one-bedroom or two-bedroom layout. We are optimistic that this project will be able to be implemented at other CTE schools to alleviate the critical teacher housing shortage in rural Alaska. We recognize the need, and this is a win-win project because it gives our students real-life experience in the building industry while also helping the State of Alaska by providing reliable housing across the state.