Application of General Contractors’ Licensing Statute

Subject:

Requested By: Mr. H. M. McCown Secretary-Treasurer North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors

Question: Are Vocational Education Instructors employed by local School Boards in North Carolina required to secure a general contractor’s licenses under G.S. 87-1 in order to supervise the construction of residential dwellings by vocational education classes in public schools?

Conclusion: No.

G.S. 87-1 requires a person to be licensed as a general contractor if he undertakes to bid upon or to construct or undertakes to superintend or manage on his own behalf or for others the construction of any building where the cost of the undertaking is $30,000.00 or more. You stated in your letter that students are constructing residential dwellings on property owned by local School Boards under the supervision of qualified instructors as the laboratory project for their vocational classes. You further stated that after the residential units are completed they are either sold or rented.

In carrying out vocational education programs, G.S. 115C-164 expressly authorizes public school vocational education trade classes to construction dwellings and other buildings on property owned by local School Boards. Local Boards are authorized to expend funds for skilled services which cannot be supplied by students. The State Board of Education has the duty to establish standards for on-the-job experience and the qualifications of the vocational instructors supervising the on-the-job experience. G.S. 115C-154(9).

The instructors are employed to develop the skills of the students through the construction of the dwellings or other buildings and related activities. Their primary function is the education and training of the students under their direct supervision, and not the construction of the dwellings. See 43 N.C.A.G. 202. G.S. 115C-154 authorizes the State Board of Education to set standards for the qualifications of the instructors. G.S. 115C-154(9) is the controlling statutes. Therefore, this Office is of the opinion that supervision by educational vocational instructors of on-the-job training of students is not within the definition of "general contractors" as contained in G.S. 87-1, and vocational instructors do not have to be licensed as a general contractor.

Rufus L. Edmisten Attorney General

James E. Magner, Jr. Assistant Attorney General