For years, business owners and educators in North Idaho have argued that enhancing career-oriented education opportunities in the region is a key link to a more skilled workforce. Finally last month, their efforts paid off.
Voters approved a public measure that will lead to a new professional-technical high school centrally located in the area. The Kootenai Technical Education Campus (KTEC), set to open in 2013, will be available to junior and seniors in three school districts. It will initially focus on health occupations, welding, construction, and automotive technology.
As part of the project, EMSI provided data and analysis on training programs to best focus on and what programs should be offered in the area.
The KTEC levy passed overwhelmingly in Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls and serves as a strong example of practitioners coming together to increase access to education and strengthen regional workforce development.
Here’s more from The Spokesman-Review newspaper:
The measure was strongly supported by many within the business community, who said the high school would help provide a skilled work force while offering options to the 85 percent of Idaho high school students who do not complete a bachelor’s degree.
Some 20 acres of land on the Rathdrum Prairie have been dedicated to the technical high school, 10 of which were donated by the Meyer family, longtime Rathdrum bluegrass farmers. Another 10 were purchased and donated to the effort by a consortium of manufacturing business owners supporting the project.
Lakeland voter Michael Cole, of Rathdrum, said the Spokane architecture firm he works for has designed several professional-technical high schools in Washington state where he said they’re “all the rage.” He said traditional high schools offer carpentry and metal shop classes but the “other trades aren’t well represented.
More info can be found at KTEC’s website.
