Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : High School Students’ Housing Construction Program Begins : Vocational education: About 40 youths will soon start building two homes. Each will be sold for no more than $80,000.

A new program in which local high school students will build two houses a year for low- to moderate-income families was kicked off Monday by school district officials.

Under the vocational education program, about 40 students from the Antelope Valley Union High School District will begin building two houses within a month. When they complete the projects in mid-May, the three-bedroom, two-bath houses will be sold for no more than $80,000 each.

“Build these houses thinking you may well live in this yourself one day because that very well could happen,” Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford told the students, who attended the groundbreaking ceremony with an array of city and high school district officials.

Local officials said the program is unique in the state because it involves a three-way joint venture involving the city, which provided the $200,000 budget, the high school district, which is providing the students and teachers, and developer Centex Homes, which will oversee the work.

From these funds, the city’s redevelopment agency bought the two lots for $60,000 from Centex Homes in an undeveloped portion of the developer’s Sunchase tract near 60th Street East and Avenue R-8 in Palmdale. The developer also is getting $10,000 to oversee the construction.

As soon as the city issues building permits and insurance coverage is obtained, 24 students from Palmdale High School and 16 from Highland High School in Palmdale will begin spending about three hours a day at the site.

Centex and another developer, Kaufman & Broad, have agreed to arrange for subcontractors to help with the instruction and perform work that must be licensed. The houses will carry the legally required 10-year structural warranty and a general one-year warranty on the students’ work.

Carol Seidl, Palmdale’s housing coordinator, said she expects the city to offer the houses for sale to qualified low- to moderate-income families through a lottery next spring. Previously, students in the schools’ construction classes built sheds and gazebos that were sold to the public.