BARTLETT — Labette County High School building and trades students completed construction on the first of an expected four houses in Bartlett. The house, 108 E. Seventh, has been sold to an incoming LCHS science teacher.
Labette County USD 506 Superintendent John Wyrick and state and local officials celebrated the project on Friday. Matt Godinez, assistant secretary of quality places for the Kansas Department of Commerce, attended the open house.
Wyrick said another lot is being cleared so construction can begin on the second home in the coming weeks. The second lot is a couple of blocks to the west. He is also looking at two other lots for housing.
An LCHS alum, Josh Hucke, is clearing the second lot at no cost to the school district. Hucke knocked down buildings and some trees on the lot to prepare it for the students. Trees were smoldering on Friday, which Wyrick called the smell of progress.
Grants from the KDOC’s Community Development Block Grant program have funded this construction for the building and trades students. The grants, totaling $147,850 so far, created a youth training program that allows students to earn money to work on the homes and learn trades, from construction to plumbing to electrical. The work takes place during school hours and in the summer.
Students worked on the home on East Seventh last summer and completed it in the fall of 2024. The original house on the property had burned some time ago and was just a shell. The lot was cleared and some trees removed to make an attractive lot for the new homeowner, Wyrick said.
Rhianne Taylor, an LCHS graduate who is now teaching in Texas, bought the three-bedroom, two-bath home. She will be a science teacher at LCHS next school year.
The city of Bartlett sponsored the grants for the school district.
Bartlett is the smallest of five grade schools in USD 506.
“That’s why we picked Bartlett to begin with,” Wyrick said. Building the four moderate-income houses will bring more families to the community and more students to the school, he
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said.
The first grant was $100,000 in 2023. The district received the second grant of $47,850 in 2024 and is applying again this year.
“The goal is we want to show sustainability of the project. If the grant goes away — at some point it will — we want to continue this to get through our third and fourth house,” Wyrick said.
The first grant paid the students for their work and extended the contract of building and trades teacher Tyler Cares by two months. The other half of the money bought tools and equipment for the program. The smaller grant will be used on the second house in Bartlett, he said.
The profit made from the sale of the first house will go toward startup money for the second, Wyrick said.
“We’re not looking to make money. We just can’t lose money. So far we have been. I think it’s going to work out,” Wyrick said.
A curriculum change allowed students to work on the project longer during the school day. Most classes last 53 minutes, which would not allow for much progress. LCHS Principal Stacy Smith reorganized the building and trades classes into a threehour block. Of the 25 students enrolled, about 18 made the three hour block work in their schedules, she said.
The students are also building a 1,500 square foot lodge for the trap shooting team and a 3,800 square foot barndominium for a customer. A barndominium combines architectural elements of a barn with the functionality of a modern home.
She said there is a three year waiting list for people who want the building and trades students to build their home.
The home building program started in Altamont, where LCHS students erected over 80 homes since the beginning of the program some decades ago. With limited room for new construction in Altamont at this time, the program looked to build in other communities. After Bartlett, the trade program will look at other communities, Wyrick said.
He said the students did all the work on the Bartlett house except for Sheetrock. They can install Sheetrock but had others do that to save time.
Godinez said he was excited to see the program blossom in Labette County, especially because the project involved a number of agencies working together, including Commerce and the Southeast Kansas Regional Planning Commission. Jim Zaleski, the city of Parsons’ economic development director, was also involved in helping the housing initiative.
“Everybody working together. … That’s what it’s all about,” Godinez said.
“I was really excited when we talked about it. And even then … it was just going to be such a long path. I’m blown away,” Godinez said. The program will meet the need for affordable housing going forward.
“It’s bankable. It’s affordable. It really fits,” he said.
“What I’ve loved is that you’ve done such a good job that we can now say what can be done. … You created a model,” Godinez said. He said once these changes start, they can create a domino effect.
“This would not have been possible, this project, in the summertime, without this grant. Because there’s no way we would have been able to do that,” Wyrick said.
“It’s all about education. It’s all about bringing young families into communities,” he said.
Lt. Gov. David Toland was to attend Friday’s event but was not able to. He plans to be in Bartlett in July.
