COLUMBIA, Maine — High school students living in coastal Washington County will have new education opportunities this semester, following the opening of a new school.
The Coastal Washington County Institute of Technology is expected to open September 8, after a nearly two year process and COVID-19 delays. The project began in early 2019 after school officials received a more than $2 million federal grant to turn an old grocery store into a career and technical education center.
CWCIT will serve Narraguaguis High School, Jonesport-Beals High School, Machias Memorial High School, and Washington Academy. Offered there will be four programs, including diesel, automotive, welding, and early childhood. School officials say those had the highest interest from the student body and could result in real jobs after graduation.
Previously, the only CTE programs offered in the area included culinary arts and building and trades at Machias Memorial High School and law enforcement and CNA at Narraguaguis High School. This semester, a new aquaculture program will be starting at Jonesport-Beals High School, too.
"The need is tremendous," Ronald Ramsey, the superintendent for MSAD 37, who has lived in the area his entire life, told NEWS CENTER Maine. "We’ve never had a vocational center or vocational building in this region."
"A lot of these kids are not going to go away to college. They don’t have any desire to, and they’re going to be certified to be employable," added Lucille Willey, director of CWCIT.
She, along with a number of community members, is excited for the opportunities this new facility will present -- to students who want to work in the trades and to those who just want to learn life skills. Daniel Ferden graduated from high school in 2013 and has been hired as the institute's welding instructor. He says he's looking forward to connecting with students and helping them learn how to do things they're passionate about, especially knowing how much the CTE program meant to him in school.
"The opportunity to be able to pass that along to future kids coming up, you know, behind me -- to me, that’s huge," Ferden expressed to NEWS CENTER Maine.
Harrington mother Candy Tucker says her son (a high school junior) will be attending the institute this fall for the automotive program. She added that in the past, some students have had to travel all the way to Ellsworth to get the same type of education.
"There’s a lot of work around here that’s hands-on, and when they get right out of school, you know -- if they want to jump right into doing something, they can," Tucker explained.
Since trades classes are so physically involved, school officials say they will be taking a number of precautions to protect against COVID-19. Those include requiring that staff and students wear masks and wash their hands more than usual; cleaning tools and equipment extensively; and enforcing social distancing in classes.
According to Willey, there are about 45 students enrolled, which is near max capacity -- but sessions will be divided into morning and afternoon sessions, and the space is large, so they are not worried about social distancing being an issue. Willey also noted that students will not be eating there, since they will only come over for a couple of hours during the regular school day. That also means temperature-taking and other preventative measures will be happening at the high schools.
Willey says the main issue they will be dealing with is how to handle early childhood programs, since those usually involve in-person work with preschoolers. Willey told NEWS CENTER Maine they will be following the example of other programs around the state but is assuming that likely cannot happen during the pandemic.
The CWCIT is located at 11 Addison Road in Columbia, Maine. Willey says that any high school students looking for community service hours are invited to come to the facility on Wednesday at 9 a.m. to help put together furniture. They are asked to bring a screwdriver and a mask.