Mike R. Waldrip, Superintendent Frisco Independent School District | Official website
Students at the Career and Technical Education Center (CTEC) will have more room to learn and grow as the final piece of an expansion opens this month. This summer, with its bare white walls and empty halls, the expansion held a world of promise.
“I’m excited,” CTEC principal Dianna Manuel said on a recent tour of the completed wing, “but I’ll be way more excited when teachers are in and we’re teaching kids.”
The CTE Center opened in 2008 with just over 1,000 students. With the new addition, over 7,000 students will take classes in 10 career clusters and 25 programs of study, as well as some advanced courses.
The addition is a testament to Frisco ISD’s commitment to career preparedness and the community’s eagerness to see those courses expand.
“What you get here can bump you up at the college level,” Manuel said. “Because of your CTE experience, internship or certification, you may not have to start at the beginning in college.
“That’s our job, really: To make sure that when students go off to college, they’re prepared above and beyond what’s expected.”
The centerpiece of the expansion is the new esports lab. Through the glass bifold doors sit rows of desktop computers, high-back black gaming chairs, glowing LED lights and big-screen TVs. This esports lab and surrounding workspaces are perfectly outfitted for the District’s esports competition and can host other high school and collegiate-level contests too.
Architecture students will get a lot more breathing room in the U-shaped lower level. In addition to rows of computers, new classrooms feature high desks and tall chairs which Manuel expects will often be pushed together.
“Collaboration’s part of every program area,” Manuel said. Just outside the classrooms are open areas and enclosed workspaces where students can spread out and work in groups. “The kids love to use these spaces.”
Architecture students also have a new build lab which has overhead outlets, large cabinets for tools and supplies, and a sink for easy cleanup. Down the hall is a teacher workspace that could later serve as a business or marketing lab.
“We’re expanding a lot of classes,” Manuel said. “For example, the Education & Training classes were in the original building; now they’re coming over here. That way we can open up some more room for marketing and business that we didn’t have before in the original wing. That’s what we do a lot — moving so we can expand in little pockets.”
While the expansion adds capacity for CTE programs, Manuel recognizes that emphasis on career preparedness will mean some students will spend more time at their internships than they will in classrooms.
“The world is out there,” Manuel said. “When you see regular classrooms many times those students’ connection to industry just looks different. They have hands-on activities but the environment’s not like that.”
The new space may also encourage students to pursue more classes along their pathway or even branch out into a new field.
“I do think the expansion motivates some students to continue taking classes in their pathway,” Manuel said. “Like ‘I want to take another class at CTE Center.’ It’s fun over there; I like what we get to do over there.’”
Funding for CTEC's expansion was approved by voters as part of a 2018 bond.
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