Bowmen House project returns to Sherwood High School

SHERWOOD, Ore. — The Sherwood School Board gave its blessing to a much-admired student program at Sherwood High School. 

The board, at its February 9 meeting, passed a resolution jump-starting the Bowmen House project. The project, which has been sidelined for a few years, allows students to build a house in Sherwood. The program started in 2011 and to date, four homes have been built. 

The project will be funded by the school district, using two internal funds set aside for the program. At the Monday meeting, the school board authorized spending $779,000 of those funds for the purchase of a subdivision lot and associated construction costs. It has yet to be determined when the new house will be built. 

The program includes students from architecture, culinary arts, and interior design courses. 

“Our kids from the architecture class are currently designing a couple different drafts of homes, depending on what land might look like,” Sherwood High School Principal Adam Mitchell told the school board. “Throughout the process, our culinary arts department gets involved, typically toward the end when we have the giant open house.” 

Mitchell continued, “Our interior design classes do a ton of work to help design the interior of the house, down to the tile, the colors … there are a lot of kids that are involved that aren’t just the ones pounding nails.” 

Typically, it takes about two years to build a Bowmen House, according to Mitchell. 

“We really work hard to find partners,” he said. “Our Bowmen House teacher, Mr. Jon Dickover, is a licensed contractor. He oversees the project. But one thing that he really makes sure of is that the people and the professionals that he subcontracts with, or who volunteer their time, are willing to do it through the lens of education.” 

Costs are often managed through generous material discounts and donated labor from local industry partners. 

“A lot of those people are either community members, former alumni, businesses within Sherwood or very close to Sherwood that want to give back,” Mitchell said. “It’s not hard to find somebody who is willing to come and work with our kids, and that’s really cool.” 

The Bowmen House program has been successfully operated for eight years. In the construction program at the high school, 30 to 60 kids can be involved in the building process. 

Contacted after the meeting, Dickover, who teaches construction and woodshop at Sherwood High School, said of the school board’s decision to re-start the program, “I’m excited about it. I think it’s a great opportunity for kids, so I’m looking forward to getting it going again.” 

As to the nuts and bolts of how the home’s interior will look, Dickover said, “We have the interior design class, they pick out all of the interiors, the color schemes, which flooring and countertops, etc. that we use.” 

Dickover said that for projects such as HVAC, electrical and plumbing, the project subcontracts that work. 

“We start with the kids on day one with the foundations,” he said. “We have somebody that comes in and does the earth work for us. Another one comes in and does the foundation. It’s just like a regular build. We have surveyors come in and help us with the lots. We hire someone to do the sheet rock and paint. A lot of that stuff comes from donations from generous community members.” 

In the past Gaston High School built cabinets for the homes.

Following graduation, Dickover said some of these students want to remain in the trades. 

“We have everything from valedictorians to kids that don’t go to college, but go into the trades,” he said. “Probably more kids have gone into construction engineering management – a lot of them go into the field in some way, maybe it’s not being a developer or a builder.”

At the February school board meeting, Board Vice Chair/Director Abby Hawkins said she looks forward to the project. 

“I feel like for at least the five years I’ve been on the board we’ve been talking about how to see this come back to life,” she said. “I know our students are very excited to be a part of this program.” 

Board member Hans Moller added, “This really builds a community at the school. It really is very impressive how it brings these young people together.”