It's the envy of any general contractor: a new 9,000-square-foot facility filled with construction and welding tools, all in the grasp of Rancho Buena Vista High School students.
It's part of Vista Unified School District's Career Technical Education (CTE) programs, which aim to expose students to different trades.
"With so much space, we can do bigger things. I mean, it'd be really difficult to teach construction and residential construction in a small space," said Landon Cardenas, the construction course teacher at the high school. "So we have a lot of space. There's not really any limit to what we can do."
The class is building a couple of tiny homes that will be donated to homeless veterans through the Warrior Village Project this week.
"This is gonna be my favorite project so far," said Eric Espinoza, a senior in the construction class. "We're starting to build a tiny home with plumbing and electrical and everything, which is pretty cool for someone my age to start doing."
"It actually really makes me feel really good. Like I feel like I'm doing a good deed," said Jorge Hernandez, another senior in the construction class. "I've grown up with, 'Do good for someone and someone will do good for you.'"
On Wednesday, this group of students will collaborate with other school districts and trade professionals on the tiny home project.
Students in the class said the tiny homes project — and the class — has opened up a new window of opportunity for life after high school.
"It's going to be a big opportunity to go out and say, 'Oh, I've worked with electric. I know the basics of plumbing,'" Hernandez said. "So it is going to open a lot of doors."
For Espinoza, the course represents a backup career plan and common-sense knowledge.
"Say when you're at home... or you need to fix your own car or some electrical problem. You can do it yourself. You don't have to pay high prices with other companies," he said. "That'll help you out. You can basically do things on your own."
Cardenas said that's the goal of new hands-on courses, along with getting OSHA certifications and meeting with apprenticeship programs.
"A lot of students start to really realize that it's a viable option for them and it's something that they can do with their future, which they may not have had before this class," Cardenas said. "Colleges are not for everybody and I don't try to nudge students either direction."
In the last four years, he said he's seen struggling students find a passion in school once again.
"It's not the normal class," Cardenas said. "They're not sitting down, they're standing up. They're using their hands. They're thinking and they're working together. It's amazing."
Before the new facility, he said the class was held in portable classrooms, and projects were smaller in scale.
'We were making small little tables and benches, and now we're building sheds and tiny homes," he said. "So we really expanded the projects we're doing."
The $13-million facility opened to students in January and was funded through state grants and the district’s Measure LL Bond.
