Tech center in the works

Call it a dream or a much-needed option for a significant percentage of Alabama's high school students, but officials are seriously pursuing a proposed career technical academy in the Shoals that would ultimately serve vocational/technical-minded students from across the state.

The proposal involves the creation of a Tennessee Valley Career Technology Center, a magnet school for the state, that would offer courses in career technical areas based on business and industry needs and student interest.

Gary Dan Williams, director of the Muscle Shoals Center for Technology, is spearheading the project and said the time is right to start training students on a much larger scale in an effort to create a strong work force in Alabama.

"This isn't just about Muscle Shoals or even the Shoals area but about the whole state and doing what we have to, to be able to compete for big business and industry by having the well-trained work force to offer those companies," Williams said. "This is truly a way of taking care of all our students by presenting them with opportunities like never before."

Courses offered wouldn't compete with programs that already exist in area vocational schools or high schools.

Williams said the plan has been in the works for several months and he admits it will be a major undertaking involving education officials around the state, lawmakers and various government officials on the local, state and federal levels.

As for a potential location for the center, TVA land that is soon to be available seems most suitable, he said.

Earlier this week Williams presented the proposal in PowerPoint to the Muscle Shoals school board.

He cited a high unemployment rate, lack of good jobs, a lack of a qualified work force to attract business and industry, an exodus of individuals from the area upon graduation and a 39 percent high school dropout rate as reasons the proposed center could be a boon for the Shoals economy. He told the board, "I know it's ambitious, but we have to at least try."

There will be a stakeholders meeting in December to present the concept, Superintendent Jeff Wooten said.

"The funding of such a large-scale project is way beyond what ours or any other school system can do alone, and that's why we'd have to pursue some line item legislative funding," he said. "The plan is still very much in the developmental stage, but we know something has got to be done if we're going to do right by our students in this state.

"The key to this project will be in acquiring the land and facilities. The timing is right for this but financially, with proration and cuts at every turn in education, it's the worst possible time. Even with our funding dilemma, we still feel like it will have a positive impact on the area and state."

There are numerous buildings on the 1,340-acre TVA reservation, some of them dating back to 1918.

Just a portion of that land would be sought for the project. Many of the facilities on the TVA property would be conducive to programs the center would operate, such as courses in environmental science with wetlands research facilities and greenhouses. Besides classroom space, there is a TVA historical museum, buildings designed in a way that they could be renovated as dormitories, a cafeteria and office space. There are also more than a dozen cultivated water beds.

The programs offered through the center also would include architecture and construction courses and audio-video technology and communication.

"We're looking into stimulus funding among various other funding means, but we know that if the economy is going to turn around, we've got to have trained people to go into the work force," Wooten said. "As for the TVA property, it seems ideal, with buildings and grounds that would well serve the needs of this program."

Steve Hargrove, a general manager for TVA who oversees 11 plants in the four-state region, said he is aware of the type of school being proposed for the property and he knows they work well.

"It's really early right now, but I'm certainly willing to help any way I can," he said.

"We've got to do what's best for this area. It's my home, too."

Williams said he has met with superintendents throughout Colbert County and is still working to secure support for the proposal locally and with state leaders.

Gary Warren, the District 7 State School Board member, has pledged his support. "It's a direction we must move in."

Warren is the retired director of Haleyville City Schools Center for Technology.

"Over the years we've let career technical education fragment and slip out of the picture," he said. "Business and industry have continuously told us we have to do better. I see this program as a way of doing better."

Warren said State Superintendent of Education Joe Morton also is supportive of the idea and in Thursday's board meeting said it's time to start discussing magnet schools.

Alabama has two large-scale magnet schools that serve high school students from around the state - a fine arts school in Birmingham and Mobile's school for mathematics and science. Both are residential, which the technology center ultimately would become.

Williams and a small delegation of educators have visited the Miami Valley Center in Miami, Ohio.

That school offers 51 programs in career technical areas with 27 school districts participating. Students at that center begin as 11th-graders and co-op their senior year. Those are details still to be determined in the local plan.

"We're doing a good job of preparing kids to go to college, but we want to create a place for students of every aptitude," Williams said.

"I also know the dropout rate in Alabama continues to be unacceptable, and it's obvious that we've got to do something," he said. "Miami Valley graduates 99 percent of its participants. This could happen here. It could be a real boon for our state."

Lisa Singleton-Rickman can be reached at 740-5735 or lisa.singleton-rickman@TimesDaily.com.

Staff writer Michelle Rupe Eubanks contributed to this report.