Geneseo (Ill.) district is building a career tech center

The Geneseo (Ill.) district has broken ground on a $4.2 million Career and Technical Education Center at Geneseo High School.

The Quad City Times reports that the 10,000-square-foot facility will be built across form the recently added Fine Arts Center at the high school and is expected to be complete in time for the 2023-24 school year.

In 2020, the Geneseo school board set a goal to explore the “renewal and expansion of vocational experiences or opportunities for students.”

A vocational committee of board members, administrators, teachers, maintenance workers and local business leaders helped bring the concept to reality.

“Approximately 25% of our students do not go on to a four-year college, and we want to make sure that every student has an opportunity to pursue the vocation and career they want," Superintendent Adam Brumbaugh said. "Our current vocational spaces in GHS total approximately 5,000 square feet, which can feel rather tight at times. The new building will double that."

The new building will initially offer welding, woodworking, automotive repair and CNC work, but the building is designed in such a way that it can easily be modified to offer additional courses, Brumbaugh said.

The architect is Richard L. Johnson Associates.