Community Update

Home Building




The 439 students of Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School’s 2015 senior class will build a house as a group. This is a first-time effort as explained in a 6/10/2014 Gazette article about Kennedy’s home-building start-up.




Kennedy’s principal, Jason Kline, wanted a project that would unify the class around something that benefits the community. He commented that “every student needs to be involved.” Students will raise funds for the materials and help with the construction, landscaping, and every aspect of this Habitat for Humanity project.




As one individual involved with the project said, “I think there’s something for everyone.”




My hat is off to Kennedy’s principal, staff, and student body. With nothing more than good will and sweat equity, these kids will be involved in something larger than themselves, learn building skills in the process, and create a home for a family in need. That family will have to contribute 200 hours of sweat equity of their own to build their house and also help build another family’s home to pay the benefit forward.




The Iowa City Community School District was once a leader in home-building curriculum. With the involvement of the Homebuilders Association, district students were able to construct 39 homes with student labor. The impact on their lives cannot be measured by a standardized test. It’s unfortunate that, like in our present situation, this program was cut in order to save $60,000. Although some programming is being brought back, it is nowhere close to what we had done in the past. Anyone who tries to tell you that building a playhouse is equivalent to building a home is throwing sawdust in your eyes. Like German, orchestra and other opportunities we take from our students, the impact will forever change their lives’ trajectory.




Opportunities and curriculum have to be fought for and our community needs to stand strong not to have our standards compromised. Nobody’s going to rank West High one of the best schools of the nation because it has a $30,000 monument sign outside. That’s window dressing. The quality of the programs, teachers, and students inside the building will determine how West High is ranked.




I feel so strongly about the home-building program that I submitted a poem to the Poetry in Public Project. It didn’t make the cut, like the home-building program, but it appears below.







The students built a house



With muscles and brains.



The students built a house,



Their lives forever changed.



The students built a house.



Why can’t it happen now?



The students built a house



It seems we’ve forgotten how




- Phil Hemingway







January 28, 2014