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School board tours donated CTE building

Staff photo by Clay Schuldt Agriculture teacher Kelsey Brandt leads the New Ulm School Board through a tour of the future CTE building.

NEW ULM — The District 88 School board took a tour of the former Windings building and future site of the District 88 Career and Technical Education (CTE) Center, Thursday.

The future CTE Center is located at 208 N. Valley Street. The board held its work session meeting at the site to see the interior of the building and received an update on plans for the building.

The work session began with a walking tour of the building. District Agriculture teacher Kelsey Brandt led the tour along with High School Principal Mark Bergmann. The board was given maps of the facility with the remodel plans. Brandt and Bergmann gave a running tally of some of the changes that would be made to the building before it opened. Currently, much of the former manufacturing floor is open space. There are plans to partition off the various sections. Office space will be converted into classrooms.

Brandt said designing the layout for the CTE Center was relatively straightforward. The building already lent itself for industrial shop work. The large garage doors on the east side of the building would allow vehicles to be driven into the shop. This section would naturally serve as the autobody department. This is also the tallest point in the building and could incorporate vehicle lifts.

The building would also house classes for, small engines, welding milling, robotics and wood construction.

After the facility tour, Bergmann explained how the classroom and education side would work. The CTE Center would offer introductory level courses for New Ulm High School students as well as advanced level courses for CTE Center students.

For the high school students, the district is working to offer a CTE pathway to graduation. The CTE pathway allows high school students to achieve all the necessary state and local graduation requirements while pursuing technical education. Some graduation requirements could be met through a technical class.

To graduate through the CTE pathway students would need to meet with a counselor first to review the benefits and shortfalls.

Bergmann said one of the best things about the CTE pathway is a student could still attend a four-year college. This is because the CTE pathway maintains the state of Minnesota’s requirements.

Bergmann said this CTE pathway gives students an option to follow a different education path that better meets their career needs and still covers all state requirements. If a student changes their mind about following a technical career, they still have all the requirements to attend a four-year college.

The district is currently working to build the fall schedule and this involves getting feedback from area students, including students not currently part of the district.

“We’re only limited by our imagination,” Bergmann said.

Board member Denny Waloch asked how the CTE Center would work with other school districts in terms of schedules.

Bergmann said the CTE would have a fairly flexible schedule. There would be extra time built in to certain periods to allow students to travel back to their school, even if it is in another district.

This led to a question of whether some students from other districts might choose to simply open enroll at the New Ulm school because of the CTE.

Bergmann said another district would be reluctant to lose students. Some districts might prevent New Ulm from presenting the CTE Center to their students. There could still be potential to advertise the CTE Center to communities.

Superintendent Jeff Bertrang describes the process as a “crawl, walk, run” scenario. The idea is to start the CTE slow with the local students before building up momentum and welcoming in other students.

Bergmann said there are still some unknowns for the CTE program. It is unknown how many students would register and which part of the curriculum will be the focus in the first year.

Bertrang said in the next two weeks the district architect will take remodeling plan to the state for review. The school will be looking into quotes for the various remodeling projects.

The next regular school board meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 25, 2021 in the District Boardroom, 414 South Payne Street, New Ulm.

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