Charter school for career and technical education opens new home in Colorado Springs
Power Technical Early College, a Colorado Springs, Colorado, charter school for students exploring careers in trades or engineering fields, is beginning the 2023-24 year in an expanded location not far from its previous campus.
The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that since opening in 2016, Power Technical had been housed in a modest building. But the plan has always been to move to a bigger campus as enrollment grew.
“We knew that, when the time came, we would need to either build or buy another building to meet the growing needs of this school,” says Rob Daughtery, chief executive officer of James Irwin Charter Schools
The previous building housed 370 students in a space meant for about 340.
Daugherty had originally intended to build on Power Technical's existing campus to expand it to 100,000 square feet, but the project proved to be cost-prohibitive.
Then school officials decided to buy a building that formerly housed Lockheed Martin offices.
The result is a 94,000-square-foot campus with 26 academic classrooms and nine career and technical education workshops, including welding, woodworking and construction rooms.
Power Technical offers an educational program that begins in sixth grade and can culminate in a tuition-free associate degree, in a skilled trade, from Pikes Peak State College.
The school will begin the year with just over 400 students. But officials hope to increase enrollment by about 100 students per year until they reach a capacity of 750 to 800 students.
