Educators from Hall County schools and Lanier Technical College united Wednesday to jump start a deeper partnership at the Lanier Charter Career Academy.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle joined educators and career academy students in a groundbreaking ceremony for the school’s new building. The addition is funded through a $2.78 million grant from the Technical College System of Georgia to support public school partnerships with technical colleges.
Cagle said he believes the career academy is the model high school for the 21st century.
He said since 80 percent of Georgia’s work force will need some type of technical training after high school, the academy’s dual enrollment program with Lanier Tech will better prepare students for successful careers. A traditional high school graduate can earn $16,000 straight out of high school, but a career academy graduate can earn $32,000 without additional education, he said.
Providing students with hands-on career certification programs could boost graduation rates, as well, Cagle said.
"We have to allow kids to identify a path that will challenge them and lead them to the workplace," he said. "... I know that we’re going to see wonderful success stories coming out of this career academy."
The career academy addition will open in August. It will feature a public student-run bistro for the academy’s hands-on culinary arts program. Linda Barrow, vice president for academic affairs at Lanier Tech, said the new building also will house programs in media broadcast, biotechnology, hospitality and marketing.
Already Lanier Tech partners with the academy to offer certification programs for nursing assistant, pharmacy assistant, car audio technician, law enforcement and fire science, she said.
The partnership between Hall County schools and Lanier Tech is one of five in the state to earn grants promoting dual enrollment for high school students.
"I believe we’re on the cusp of one of the greatest partnerships in the country," Hall County Schools Superintendent Will Schofield said.
Lanier Tech President Mike Moye said students who earn certificates at the academy can easily transition to an associate degree program at the nearby technical college. Getting a start on discovering their career goals in high school will give students a head start in the working world, he said.
"They need every opportunity we can give them to show them all the possibilities in the world of work," he said.
Jerry Huguley, director of construction for Hall schools, said the 24,000-square-foot building will be built alongside the existing Lanier Charter Career Academy off Atlanta Highway and will be completed before late June.
The conditions of the grant require the building to be open in time for the 2010-11 school year.
The culinary arts building will have two classrooms, a coffee shop with tall cafe tables, a restaurant, a teaching kitchen, a working kitchen for the restaurant, a large meeting area and a gift shop. The gift shop will serve as a hands-on business through which digital marketing and hospitality students can gain experience.
Huguley said the brick building will have a foyer with a fireplace. The restaurant and cafe will have glass walls built around an old white oak tree. He said the building should be completed in June.