SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Students at the Springfield-Clark Joint Vocational School are saving the school money and leaving it with a lasting legacy.

        When the 3,200-square-foot building for the school's administrators is finished next year, students from the carpentry, heating, electrical and technology departments will have done more than 90 percent of the work, school Superintendent Randall Richardson said. The district has contracted only for the excavation and masonry work.

        He said using students will save the district about $200,000.

        Students are giving up their Saturdays, study halls and part of their lunch period for the job. They have been working about four hours a day since mid-September and hope to be finished in the spring.

        “My kids make a lot of sacrifices,” said Ron Howard, a teacher at the school for 16 years.

        “But for kids who were two months ago building doghouses — some, not so good doghouses — they'll feel so much pride the rest of their lives every time they drive by this school building.”

        “We're young, but that makes no difference,” said Alan Keefer, one of the 40 carpentry students working on the building. “We have a job to do and we're expected to do it well and learn new things as we go.”

        “This is a job site, and my kids treat it like one,” Mr. Howard said. “If they're sick, I don't want a call from Mom or Grandma.

        “I want the kid to tell me why he's not going to be here with a hammer in hand at 8 a.m.”

        It's not unusual for vocational carpentry students to help build houses or small commercial structures. In Clark County, the vocational school's senior class has built a house in the community every year for 31 years.

        But vocational education projects rarely generate savings for the school district, Mr. Richardson said.

        Students at the Warren County Career Center in Lebanon built that school's administration building two years ago. Vince Roessner, superintendent of the center, said he knew of no other school in Ohio that had done anything similar before that.

        More than 100 students worked on the project and saved the district about $400,000, Mr. Roessner said, adding that the project succeeded more than anyone had dreamed.

        “The kids treat this building like it's a temple,” Mr. Roessner said.

        His students, like those in Clark County, worked on their own time.

        “It was students taking ownership of their education,” he said.

        State proficiency tests and increasing classroom requirements are pulling vocational students out of laboratories and off job sites, said Pat Huston, resource-development consultant for the Ohio Department of Education.

        She said projects such as those in Springfield and Lebanon compensate for that.

        “If these students are willing to go in on Saturdays and give up study halls, that says a lot about the quality of the program,” Ms. Huston said.

        Building such a large structure is not without pitfalls. Outside contractors probably could have completed the building in three months; the students will need nine.

        “We'll probably build the equivalent of a building-and-a-half because we have to tear down a lot of mistakes,” Mr. Howard said. “But using extra lumber is the price of education.”

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