Pajaro Valley Unified School District Tiny Home Project

PVUSD’s CTE Building and Construction Trades Students
Complete First Tiny Home at Aptos High School

Watsonville, CA - The PVUSD CTE Building and Construction Trades pathway Aptos High School is proud to announce the completion of their project as part of the Tiny Home initiative which began in Fall 2022 at Aptos and Watsonville High Schools. The two-year project has provided students with hands-on skill-building experiences in many aspects of the construction industry trades as well as the design and building of structures like a tiny home. This initiative has been fueledby PVUSD’s partnerships with Granite Construction and the Pajaro Valley Education Foundation (PVEF).

Granite’s generous financial donation has enabled the initiative to be sustainably funded year-to-year as students will continue to build community-driven projects like the tiny homes as part of their learning experiences in the CTE pathway. PVEF is coordinating the transition of the tiny home to the community. "We are thrilled to see this first tiny home come to fruition," said Mr. Dusten Dennis, Career Technical Education teacher at Aptos High School. "This project has been an incredible learning experience for our students, who have worked diligently over the past two years to build this beautiful tiny home."

PVEF will sell the tiny home to fund future tiny home and structure builds, ensuring that students will continue to have the opportunity to engage, learn, and acquire valuable industry-relevant skills because of these valuable learning experiences.

"This tiny house project has taught me the basics of how to pretty much build a house from top to bottom,” said Jordan Torres, a 12th grade student. “My most productive part of the house was probably the plumbing, which is a very important aspect to the house, so that taught me enough to work on my own system at my house. The project was definitely a great learning experience that gave me tips and tricks that I could likely use in my future life.”

The tiny home was on display on June 3 at 4:15 pm at Aptos High School and students, staff, families, and partners had the opportunity to tour the home and learn more about the Building and Construction Trades CTE pathway at Aptos High School. Here is an album with photos and videos of the huge Tiny Home reveal event. This CTE pathway is also offered at Watsonville High School, where a similar tiny home is under construction with a projected completion date of June 2025.

For more information about the Tiny Home Project or Career Technical Education in PVUSD, please contact Julie Edwards, CTE Coordinator, at julie_edwards@pvusd.net

About Career Technical Education at PVUSD
Career Technical Education (CTE) in the Pajaro Valley School District provides students with focused academic
and technical training pathways to family-sustaining jobs and fulfilling, high-demand careers, preparing them
for success in college, career, leadership, and life.