MADISON TOWNSHIP – A new provision in Ohio’s next biennium budget could open the door for a career tech expansion at Madison Comprehensive High School.
Supt. Rob Peterson told school board members last week the district is working on a grant proposal to add five new classrooms and one new lab onto the back of the high school’s career tech wing. The proposal also seeks funds to renovate the health technologies lab.
Peterson and Jacob Grove, the district’s career tech director, said the addition would allow more high school and adult education students to enroll in career tech programs.
Grove estimated the new classrooms would result in between 40 and 60 extra seats across five impacted programs. The new classrooms would be for auto technology, welding, electrical maintenance, carpentry and precision machining.
“In some of those programs, we have waitlists and not every kid can get into the program that they want,” Peterson said.
Grove said the district would not hire additional staff, but would increase class sizes by about 4 students per program and grade level. Some career tech programs are currently being housed in lab spaces, which are smaller than classrooms and allow for fewer students.
According to Grove, there are about 184 career tech slots for juniors across all career tech programs and 184 more for seniors. This year’s sophomore class had more than 220 career tech applicants.
“Some of our families moved here and want to be a part of Madison because of the career-tech opportunities,” Grove said.
“It’s really difficult to say, there’s only 16 spots and 24 students wanted in.”
Peterson said the district is consulting with architects, but hasn’t finalized the amount of money it will request. The grant proposal would include the total project cost, from the new construction and utility installation to equipment for the new lab and classrooms.
Peterson and Grove said Madison would only move forward with the project if its grant proposal is fully-funded by the state.
“Being good stewards of our taxpayer money is extremely important to us,” Grove said.
Where is this grant money coming from?
Ohio’s latest biennial budget, House Bill 33, will govern how state funds are allocated for fiscal years 2024 and 2025.
In his version of the budget, Gov. Mike DeWine proposed a $200 million allocation for the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission to administer the career tech expansion grant. The version introduced in the Ohio House of Representatives reduces the amount to $100 million.
Applications are due May 5, despite the fact that the state’s biennium budget likely won’t be approved until June.
“(The state) wants to generate new construction and new seats for career tech as fast as possible,” Grove said. “They want us to be ready to go, shovel ready with our proposals.”
Peterson said he was optimistic the provision would be included in the final version of the bill, which must be passed by the Ohio House and Senate and signed by the governor.
“It’s still gotta go to the Senate and they can go back to the $200 million or even more than that,” Peterson said. “It’s going to happen, it’s just a matter of how much money they’re going to invest.”
