Constructing a New Future at the CTE Center
January 24, 2023
The Frisco ISD Career and Technical Education Center is building a new future brick by brick. The school district is adding a new building to the CTE Center, creating more opportunities for students.
With the CTE Center expansion, students can look forward to new classes on the ever-growing pathway to their future.
Although the expansion will open new doors for the CTE Center and FISD, students say the classes at the center have already provided the chance to gain a technical feel for their future career paths.
“The CTE classes have helped me with my career goals by helping me establish my independence, especially through the engineering pathway,” Centennial High School Senior Yunia Orine said. “I’ve been able to really understand what I need to work on within myself and my future career.”
The construction of the new building started in the summer of 2022 and is expected to be finished by April of 2024. With this expansion teachers say many departments will be able to grow the number of students and classes.
“Our medical department will have its own wing,” medical microbiology teacher Lynee Mercadel said. “Our architecture and engineering will also be able to expand and accept more students into their program.”
However, the expansion has experienced its fair share of challenges. Throughout the past few months, students and teachers have had to overcome complications due to the ongoing construction.
“We’ve had four gas leaks,” child guidance teacher Lyndsey Mercado said. “Since my room is in the same wing as the construction, we’ve had to evacuate all four of those times.”
Nevertheless, Crossland Construction, the company building the expansion, has guaranteed that they are taking the necessary precautions to prevent any potential issues.
“We had issues with an existing gas line that ran underneath the proposed storm shelter addition that we’re adding on to this building,” Crossland project engineer Camry Mullens said. “We coordinated with CoServe to get that relocated.”
The expansion presents itself as a learning opportunity for many CTE center students. Many classes that involve construction and design have been utilizing the development as a demonstration of real world application.
“The construction gives us a lab right here to go look at,” introduction to engineering and design teacher Forrest Medcalf said. ”It is a great opportunity for students to learn.”
Overall, the experiences the CTE Center provides for students can be beneficial for students and their future endeavors.
“My students that are in college now are able to email me and say ‘you won’t believe the research that I’m involved with,” Mercadel said. “You won’t believe how I’m ahead of the class because I’m so comfortable with everything we’re doing because I did it before at the CTE.’”
