Lauderdale County School District is moving closer to having its career and technical programs under one roof as work on the future Career and Technical Education Center is progressing quickly.

 

“It’s so exciting to see walls actually going up and put a visual on the size and shape some of our programs are going to be,” said Rob Smith, CTE director for the district. “It’s so exciting.”

 

Housed in the former Peavy Building off of Highway 11/80 in the industrial park, the new CTE center will be used by students from each of LCSD’s four campuses, with courses designed to prepare them for careers in law and public safety, construction, marketing and more. Currently, each campus hosts its own CTE programs independently, and centralizing the program is also expected to reduce duplication and free up resources to offer even more programs.

 

Work on the CTE center, which began in September 2024, is being funded through an $8 million state appropriation, which also helped pay for preliminary site work, permits, architectural service and more.

 

Lauderdale County voters in October 2023 rejected a $12.5 million bond issue that would have funded a larger center with more courses at an estimated cost of $19 million. After the bond issue failed, LCSD officials opted to scale back their plans and leave room for expansion later.

 

Smith said the CTE center will be divided into four sections, including Health and Human Services, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), Educator Preparation and Business Management, along with plenty of space for future programs.

 

“That’s exciting to see those four programs as we kick off,” he said, “But as you can see, we have a huge amount of space to be able to develop programs in the future, and that’s the key to this center. As industries land here, we can have a developable space to cater the needs of workforce in the future.”

 

Construction of the new center is estimated to take approximately 15 months to complete, and district officials are looking at opening the space for use in fall of 2026.