Like a finely tuned generator, the Monongalia County Technical Education Center was humming along Thursday afternoon.
It wasn’t as bustling, as say, a mid-week day in fall, center director Greg Dausch said, but there was still enough activity to keep staffers busy and working for the cause.
“Yeah, we’re keeping at it,” he said.
Registration for fall evening classes for adult learners begins Monday, Dausch said.
For more information, visit https://mtec.mono.k12.wv.us/ or call 204-291-9240.
And completers in the licensed practical nursing program are getting ready to go forth in graduation ceremonies in August, he said.
Dausch, he said, always enjoys commencement at METC — because he knows graduates are already hired, or they’re about to be, to do meaningful work at a livable wage.
METC graduates know how to frame a house, prepare four-course meals, and just about everything else, he said.
They know how to keep business operations going and those generators, too.
The tech center in the near future will reconfigure to offer appropriate education for middle-schoolers.
That will come with the construction of the Renaissance Academy, the local district’s $72 million stand-alone STEM school — devoted solely to science, technology, engineering and math pursuits.
Current plans are to have it built and open by 2027. If it the site works out, it will occupy an expanse near Cassville in full view of Interstate 79.
A Nebraska architectural firm that has designed schools in Colorado and Arizona has been commissioned for the work.
Mon County’s edition will boast gleaming labs and learning spaces which will be underwritten, ideally, by marquee sponsors from the world of high-technology.
Students from Morgantown High School, University High and Clay-Battelle will rotate in and out, while keeping their traditional liberal arts schedules intact at their respective schools.
It’s not just about architecture, as Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. and other proponents have said.
It’s about changing attitudes and philosophies of American students, post-pandemic and otherwise.
And, it’s about a current generation of students who would rather join the workforce opposed to another four years of sitting in college classrooms.
For Dausch, it can help be about education — and direction.
“There are going to be so many more opportunities for our kids in the county and at MTEC,” the director said.
“Who wouldn’t be looking forward to that?”
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