Auction brings $162,000 bid for Litchfield Schools' construction trade house

Business Manager Jesse Johnson said he’s still waiting for some bills for supplies and service, so a final profit number was not yet available. However, if total expenses are similar to past years, the district could see a profit of $50,000 or more — which would be nearly double the previous best ($27,457 in 2020).

Proceeds from the sale of the house go back into the construction trade program, Johnson said.

This year’s sale was a big boost to the program, especially given that no house was built during the 2020-21 school year, due to COVID-19 pandemic and distance learning challenges.

School Board member Greg Mathews heaped praise on Litchfield’s program and instructor John Spanos.

“I know a lot of programs don’t even break even,” Mathews said.

Litchfield construction house program has drawn interest from outside the area, Mathews said, with mayors of both Minneapolis and St. Paul visiting the program in recent years. St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter even “grabbed a hammer and hammered a couple nails” and “thought this was something special.”

Johnson said the program requires “dedication and relationships” to be successful, and he credited Spanos with both, saying his ability to work with outside contractors, such as electricians and plumbers, to perform some of the work that can’t be done by high school students, makes all the difference.

The class “builds a quality product (that) is very good,” Johnson said. “That’s why we’re getting really good bids.”

Since its inception, the program has seen only one deficit year, in 2012, when expenses exceeded sale price by $3,264.