CAREER CENTER'S MOVE LEAVES ROOM FOR EXPANSION

Most Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center programs -- including those with the medical field -- will be expanded when the school moves into its new building under construction off Silver Springs Road.

Construction of the new center will be substantially complete by the end of the month, and staff members have begun preparations to move from the existing vocational school at 301 N. Clark. However, Director Harold Tilley said the move will be delayed until the district assumes control of the building, most likely, in April.

Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce president and chief executive officer John Mehner said the expanded facilities will benefit the area's businesses and industries.

"This is a great program," he said. "It provides training for employees for their jobs and helps keep existing industries going. That's one of our top priorities."

The program offers training in industrial, health care, mechanical and electronic and education fields.

Tilley said the building's additional space will allow the district to bring all business-related programs under one roof.

The Southeast Missouri Regional Industrial Training Group, a partnership of industry and education groups, provides mechanical and electronics training in a couple of classrooms in Town Plaza Shopping Center. Three business education teachers, formerly at Central High School, will move to the new career center.

Computer technology students will use larger, upgraded labs to learn to use such sophisticated equipment as scanners, digital cameras, writable compact disc players, digitized voice and voice recognition machines, along with computer skills using Microsoft Office.

Adult computer classes, previously held at night to prevent overcrowding, will be offered during the day. Students also will have access to a distance-learning classroom, and industrial partners or new industrials will be able to test equipment in a customized training area.

A television studio equipped to produce and record educational programs and school board meetings for broadcast on city-run public access channels also will operate at the career center.

Career format

"We are expecting to be much more responsive to needs because of the additional room," Tilley said. "With several hundred business education students under one roof, we'll be able to offer much more training to those individuals."

Tilley said the school's new facilities and new name will help staff members, students and local businesses recognize the national trend among vocational schools and organizations to move from purely vocational training to a more career-oriented format. Staff and community members are changing letterhead, brochures and even telephone etiquette to help everyone make the change to the new name.

"It's going fairly well, but when you've spent years calling a building by one name, it becomes force of habit," Tilley said.