Auburn Career Center receives $4.2 million grant
Funds are through state Career Technical Construction program
PUBLISHED: November 27, 2023 at 5:28 p.m. | UPDATED: November 27, 2023 at 5:36 p.m.
According to state officials, the program aids in expanding education and training facilities to serve more students.
• Allied health technology
• Patient care technician
• State-tested nurse aides
• Exercise science
Auburn plans to renovate its current health care wing, expanding four program labs to five.
The grant will also allow Auburn to move forward with “much-needed” renovations and purchase modern supplementary equipment, officials noted.
“The ability to offer additional in-demand training in state-of-the-art facilities to the students of Lake and Geauga counties will positively impact our communities for years to come,” said Auburn Superintendent Brian Bontempo.
“We continue to see a growing interest in health care fields in our region and across the state,” he added. “And this week we had our first meeting to begin to set the timelines for this project. Because of the (anticipated) use of these buildings, timing and scheduling of the work will be critical.”
The project will work “in tandem” with the second phase of the school’s redesigned public safety facilities.
Officials confirmed Phase II will include a building for “unique” first-responder training classrooms, high bays for fire trucks and other special training opportunities.
Phase I, of the outdoor fire training space, was completed last month and is currently in use.
Bontempo said the school should have its quality and precision measurement lab completed before the end of the year.
“This (stage) will allow middle school, high school, and adult students, in addition to customized training for the manufacturing community, to access up-to-date quality tools,” he added, noting the lab was also completed as a result of a state workforce grant.
“We want to offer as many opportunities for students and the business community to utilize the great facilities that we have as possible,” Bontempo added. “We also can’t say enough about our excellent partners — just last month, we rolled out the addition of a 5-axis Haas machine in our lab, which was a direct result of the
Alliance for Working Together.
“To provide a high-quality career tech education, it takes a lot of resources and support, and we are fortunate to have that support.”
The application for the program closes Dec. 15.
Funding is open for all schools in Ohio seeking to upgrade equipment and may be used to purchase machinery, software, classroom supplies, operational costs, curriculum, and materials for instruction.