OHS is receiving an addition to its campus this upcoming year with the new CTE building. This building is being built in place of the old soccer fields at the school to house many of the CTE programs.
Duncan Gray, the director of the CTE program for the high school, expressed how helpful this new building will be for the CTE program overall.
“We are actually bringing four programs over to the new building that we have not had a place for on campus,” Gray said. “We are bringing over Law and Public Safety, the Information Technology (IT) program, the Business Marketing program, and our IT teacher will also be teaching our new drone program. We also have our Health Sciences and Sports Medicine programs over there, and we are adding the clinical nursing side of that next year.”
Along with new programs, other already existing CTE programs will be moved into the new building.
“The ROTC will also be in that facility,” Gray said. “We are bringing the digital media program over there as well.”
Gray is optimistic about the future of the CTE programs that this building will help bring about. Gray thinks this will aid students in finding real-world experience to help them pursue a certain field.
“Not just the programs in that building, but CTE programs in general are built to support students if they have an interest in a certain career path and being able to really dive into it or see what it is about,” Gray said. “These programs will supply them with the technical skills they need to succeed in that particular field.”
This building will also provide new technology for the CTE programs. This technology will allow these programs to further indulge in each CTE field, giving the students a better grasp of the field.
“It is going to be state of the art,” Gray said. “Whatever the industry has is what we will have for our students. We are very fortunate to have the funding that we do from the school district to afford this equipment because they understand how important it is for our students to have access to the best technology possible.”
Corey Hale is the current HVAC teacher at the high school and is a part of one of the new programs that will be moved into this new facility. With the new technology and new courses, students will be able to get hands-on experience within these programs and collaborate with other CTE courses.
“We will have our students work with these new courses to build things like air conditioners and such,” Hale said. “Our plan is to show them how to work on their air conditioner, and then, with that knowledge, we will take them into the public to work on air conditioners rather than just staying here in the shop. We have built a room here in this building with the construction class, and we intend to do that in the new building as well. With the new programs, we do not quite know yet and we will figure it out with them soon enough.”
Along with new technology, the bigger space allows for a greater representation of how the CTE programs will appear in the future when students enter the field for work. There will also be more space for students to work, elevating what they can complete.
“I think that this new building will give us new space and newer equipment that the old building did not have,” sophomore engineering student Will Hewitt said. “For example, the equipment in the old building is getting old and harder to use, but with this new building, I really envision the equipment that will come with it sharpening our skills.”
Along with the positives that this new addition to campus brings, moving into a new building also poses some challenges for these CTE programs.
“The challenging thing will just be the process of getting the equipment that our students need into the building for their experiences,” Hale said.
Despite this challenge, current students in CTE courses have expressed enthusiasm about the future of their programs with the new building and technology next school year brings.
“I am not exactly sure what the exact equipment we will be getting is, but I am positive that whatever we receive will be very helpful in our work,” Hewitt said. “Even though I do not know what is in store for us in this new building, me and my classmates are excited for the move.”
