Progress Report: Excitement Builds as Completion Draws Near on new Career and Technical High School
Construction is underway on the Career & Technical High School, Pasadena ISD's first campus to focus exclusively on a career and technical education. The school is on track to be completed in August 2014. Pictured here: The front entrance of the Career and Technical High School.
Pasadena ISD’s new Career and Technical High School (CTHS) is beginning to take shape and is expected to be completed by August 2014.
“We have passed the 50 percent completion mark,” Steve Fleming, Career and Technical High School principal said. “The construction site has permanent power and construction is being completed on the roofing, sidewalks and driveways.”
Crews are working in many areas including electrical, plumbing, interior sheetrock and the maritime facility and fitness trail.
The new campus will meet the demands of local businesses and industries while providing rigorous programs that prepare high school students for college and careers in high-demand areas including hospitality and hotel services, maritime and port operations, pre-engineering/robotics, nursing, veterinary medicine, automotive collision, and welding.
District students and parents are reeling with excitement over the new campus. A total of 1,180 parents and 920 students attended presentations at intermediate and high school campuses throughout the four-month recruiting period. Students completed surveys indicating their interest in the 26 career programs offered at the Career and Technical High School.
“Programs generating the most interest included criminal justice, health services, welding, engineering and robotics, animation and graphics, veterinary tech, and automotive technology,” Fleming said.
Within a short time frame, school administrators received roughly 2,600 applications competing for 1,200 seats. The overwhelming response confirmed the district’s need for a campus designed to equip students to graduate from high school with the skills necessary to successfully begin a career.
Selection was based on a combination of criteria including student attendance, discipline, academic performance on STAAR exams, and essay scores. In addition, applicants were interviewed by Career and Technical Education (CTE) program staff.
Students were asked to outline educational and career goals in their essays. Here are some of their responses:
“Because of this cutting edge educational opportunity, I will have an enormous jump start over other students across the state in my chosen career pathway.”
“Going to CTHS will help me achieve my ultimate goal of someday being a doctor and helping others.”
For incoming ninth and tenth grade students, each high school campus received an allocated number of seats based on the percentage of high school students across the district. Fleming said this provided an equitable opportunity for students from all five high schools to be selected to attend CTHS.
Projected Enrollment for Each Grade level - Grade 9: 412 students Grade 10: 348 students Grade 11: 429 students
Total: 1,189 students
Reflecting the optimistic outlook for the campus, one student said, “The hands-on opportunity is the most interesting feature I have seen, to be able to be in a real life situation and to experience what my future could be like is mind blowing. The question shouldn’t be why attend, but rather why not attend CTHS.”
School officials have completed the selection process. Students will be notified of their application status this week.
For more information, please visit the CTHS website, www.CTHSweb.com