Dedicated K–12 Technology Centers Provide Diverse Range of CTE Options

Dedicated CTE Center Designs Benefit From Stakeholder Contributions

K–12-based CTE programs — which often reflect local workforce needs — have seen a marked resurgence in the past 14 years due in part to enhanced federal funding for vocational education initiatives, says Shaun Dougherty, chair of Boston College’s Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics and Assessment Department in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development.

“Career and technical education has expanded,” Dougherty says. “The number of people participating and type and scope of some of the programs have seen a lot of change over the past decade as schools focused more comprehensively on college and career readiness and less on test accountability.”

Prior to the HCT’s construction, Huntsville City Schools offered smaller CTE programs at individual high schools. But as technology evolved, and bigger, better training tools became available, Elam says, the district began to rethink its CTE approach.

“We have six high schools,” she says. “These half-million-dollar advanced machining devices and big printers — that's not something we can do times six. It was clear we needed to bring that to a central location.”

Designing a building that can facilitate multiple gas and electric, network connectivity and other infrastructure needs required fastidious, collaborative planning.

HPE Aruba Networking wireless access points provide connectivity within the HCT; network closets contain uninterruptable power supply units to support the abundance of Power over Ethernet equipment, including the center’s intercoms and badge access system, Elam says.

Elam worked with teachers and the center’s CDW representative to finalize classroom plans the summer before the building opened.

In the commercial kitchen space, for instance, HDMI cables were initially tested with screens mounted on six-wheeled metal workstations that allow students to watch a live feed of the culinary program instructor modeling food preparation techniques.

“At some point in the future, she may rearrange the stations to be in a different configuration, so the wiring was going to be really challenging,” Elam says. “We mounted a Chromebox on the back of each of those screens, so it could be streamed wirelessly to make it a little bit more flexible and also accommodate all of the gas and water lines.”

Consider External CTE Guidance and Classroom Configuration

In August 2023, Greenville County Schools’ CTE Innovation Center began prepping 10th- to 12th-grade students to pursue jobs in five in-demand career areas: aerospace technology, automation and robotics, clean energy technology, emerging automotive research, and networking and cybersecurity.

“Greenville has four career centers that offer very traditional programming: cosmetology, firefighting, welding,” says Katie Porter, the center’s director. “The concept for the Innovation Center was, rather than just throwing some new programs in all of the current centers, to have an incubation hub where we could pilot new and emerging pathways for students.”

An advisory committee that helped identify relevant job opportunities and skills continues to review the South Carolina facility’s curriculum, Porter says, to ensure new and relevant concepts are being taught, such as drone use. Students can learn to use a DJI model in the aerospace program and earn FAA Part 107 certification.

Labs house a variety of tech assets, including automated robots and tabletop solar panels. Due to district-mandated firewalls, a number of elements needed to be hardwired, Porter says, including Dremel and other 3D printers in a manufacturing makerspace with modeling and computer-aided design (CAD) capabilities. To print items, students plug in their laptops or thumb drives.

Server access has been structured to ensure students in the networking and cybersecurity program safely conduct simulations.

“Cyber students do not have access to the Greenville County server,” Porter says. “Cables run under the floor to a separate server. Students can still practice and learn, but they're not messing with Greenwell County’s network.”

The instruction and equipment experience the CTE Innovation Center offers has helped numerous students enter the workforce after high school, according to Porter; others parlay it into a two- or four-year college education.

“We’re starting to see a number of students choose the military,” she says. “We have some doing apprenticeship programs. Some go on to an engineering school, and some are choosing the two-year route and letting these companies pay for their tuition. They come out at 20 years old, making $75,000 or $80,000 a year with no college debt.”

Standardized Elements Can Support New CTE Locations’ Design       

According to Principal Mike Gifford, program capacity had forced the Washoe County School District’s Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology to turn hundreds of interested students away in its initial 15 years of operation. So, the Reno, Nev., district built another CTE-dedicated facility: The Debbie Smith CTE Academy opened its doors in August 2025.

Using the district’s standardized new construction specs for educational technology and a preferred procurement source helped drive tech purchase prices down and ensure the new academy would have a uniform, familiar infrastructure, says district CIO Chris Turner.

“Because of the nature of the instruction that goes on in that building, there’s a lot of special equipment — health labs that look like actual hospital rooms, the culinary program,” Turner says. “Mike worked to design the building with the facility and capital project folks.”

The full-time accredited high school offers nine CTE programs that focus on engineering and manufacturing, biomedical, welding and metalworking, and other proficiencies.

In addition to a mannequin that breathes, sweats and bleeds, acquired for the nursing program, the technology the academy has implemented spans from SolidWorks CAD software, used by engineering program students, to Microsoft Office 365, which school staff members rely on for communication.

Cisco switches and 117 Meraki wireless access points — one per classroom and six installed outside the building for parking lot, sporting event and other coverage — provide network connectivity in and around the Smith Academy.

Its 40 classrooms have been outfitted with a workspace for teachers’ laptops that often also includes an HP monitor, plus docking stations and interactive boards from Promethean.

The ability to receive industry certifications and hands-on tech-based training has resonated with Washoe County students: For the upcoming school year, 1,100 incoming first-year students submitted applications to attend the Debbie Smith CTE Academy, Gifford says. Only 225 spots are available.

“It’s a lottery to get in,” he says. “The demand shows that we probably need another one of these schools in our district. The community support we’ve received— the student, staff and family feedback has overwhelmingly been positive.”

CTE-Oriented Sites Can Produce Positive Outcomes for Districts and Students

School districts may face construction expenses and staffing challenges when trying to build a CTE-specific facility. Some students might be hesitant to attend, based on the location, Dougherty says — even with accommodations such as buses to shuttle them back and forth from other high schools.

His daughter, who is in the eighth grade, is currently debating whether to enroll at a local high school that offers some CTE programming or a more comprehensive technical school farther from their home.

“As soon as it’s in a different building, students have to make choices to go part time, incurring transportation or other costs to get there, or have it be the only high school they attend,” he says. “If you send them to a technical school that adds 30 minutes to get there, it changes their ability to participate in extracurricular activities. There’s a social cost to making these transitions.”

However, if a considerable interest exists in a region and budgetary constraints aren’t an issue, bringing CTE resources and instruction under one roof, instead of doling out a limited equipment selection to individual schools, can be economically efficient, according to Dougherty.

An analysis he conducted involving Massachusetts and Connecticut schools found K–12 CTE concentration efforts that feature a strong connection to employer needs and college pathways and a multiyear skill building approach can be a worthwhile investment — contributing to higher postsecondary attendance, engagement and future earnings.

“Health, engineering and IT pathways tend to have aligned programs in two- or four-year colleges,” Dougherty says. “Skilled trade programs in particular can have a payoff right away. There are jobs in skilled trades that are less likely to get overtaken by AI. There should be a pretty steady demand, but they aren’t going to require a college degree.”