New construction to begin on Southwest CTE facilities

Jason R. O'Day, The Dickinson Press, N.D.
Updated ·3 min read

Dec. 8—DICKINSON — Southwest Area Career and Technical Education Academy got one step closer to its goal of

offering

vocational and trades educational facilities to middle, high school and college students. During a Dec. 6 special meeting, the Dickinson Public School Board approved new funding for the project after finalizing construction bids.

CTE Director Aaron Anderson provided updates on the ongoing and soon forthcoming construction projects.

"Building A, which is currently under renovation...I think we're actually going to be, hopefully, be getting that building completed by the end of this year," Anderson said. "An exciting 2023 lies ahead with more opportunities coming to life for our students and CTE teachers as well as bridging the gap between education and workforce to help address the needs of our local economies."

Three health sciences courses are currently operating out of the Dickinson Middle School until building A renovations are complete, putting use to the building in the interim.

On the new construction and renovations to buildings B and C, the bids for the single prime contractor and general construction were awarded to Tooz Construction. Central Mechanical won the mechanical construction contract and Magnum Electric received the nod for electrical construction in an uncontested bid.

The multi-million dollar project will aid area students in Career and Technical Education (CTE), the practice of teaching specific career skill sets to students in middle school, high school, and post-secondary institutions.

The Academy seeks to reinvent career and technical education and has evolved from early ideas centered on vocational education models to one that mirrors that being taught at secondary education across the country. The program will build students with an eye toward careers in skilled trades, technology and applied sciences and is expected to meet or surpass the demands for, "up skilling," today's workforce.

Programs of study will parallel ND CTE Program Areas or Career Clusters and include: agriculture, food & natural resources, architecture & construction, arts, A/V technology & communications, business management & administration, education & training, finance, government & public administration, health sciences, hospitality & tourism, human services, information technology, manufacturing, engineering & mathematics; and distribution & logistics

To be successful the program will need to reach its $22 million fundraising goals, but DPS Superintendent Marcus Lewton said they were well on their way. Lewton confirmed that the CTE has been awarded a total of approximately

$10 million

from various federal grant funding programs, but that they were still waiting for the Federal Treasury to release $3.3 million of the money allocated from the Coronavirus Capital Projects fund. The CTE also received $2 million each from the City of

Dickinson

and Stark County, as well as $500,000 from Dunn County.

The CTE has also benefited from the generosity of private philanthropy, including a Sax Motors donation of a Chevy Silverado 2500 diesel truck for instructors to haul mobile learning labs, and to date the project has raised $17.5 million toward the overall goal.

A recent contribution of $1 million from a Dickinson business man was added to this week's award by North Dakota Regional Workforce Impact's grant of $436,000. The grant will aid in supporting the purchase of equipment for the culinary, CDL and heavy equipment programs that are set to launch next school year.

For more information on the CTE, visit

dickinson.k12.nd.us/