I think the bigger point that is missed is THIS is how to do computer science in schools. We see articles all the time on here about how to teach a 3 year old how to code some shitty popup in javascript. This is the way computers were learned in the 80s, it's how I learned, you sit down and you figure something out related to a project you're interested in. You can sit a hundred students in a classroom and just go through a workbook it isn't fun, it isn't engaging, and for most of them it won't be remembered or used, and for the 3 kids in the class that want to actually learn how to use a computer/program a workbook is the last thing to give them they'll either have it completed before the teacher even gets to the section and worse will probably be scolded for working ahead for not following along. Set them up with a raspberrypi and SD card (unimaged) a box full of simple electronic sensors and give them time to figure things out.
I think the message here is that I can't imagine a school district allowing a student to setup the HVAC controls for their buildings in this day and age, and I don't think it is entirely that everything is already pre-packaged, I think it's the mindset of adults that allowing a kid to touch something might break it and they don't understand how to fix it so they don't want the risk. Obviously sourcing a student to do this you would have to be careful, but even just allowing students to be part of the actual project would be useful, maybe you get the tech students that will go in to HVAC in with the project designers during the meetings and then you put them out there after school with the people doing the install so they can get some first hand knowledge. Instead the students will sit in their insulated bubble of a classroom learning about these things in an abstract way while the same skills and knowledge could be taught in an engaging way if they would literally just go to the basement and help set it up.
