CTE building misses first day of school

Classes started at North Idaho College Monday, but the students in the Career and Technical Education program weren’t in their new classrooms.

The new CTE building in Rathdrum, which was scheduled to be open by the start of school, is about three weeks behind schedule, according to Chris Martin, NIC’s director of finance and business affairs.

“We have had some challenges completing electrical in all of the labs,” Martin said. “That’s really the key component.”

The new facility will be mostly complete by Sept. 5, with the front entrance and the manufacturing wing ready to use after Labor Day. Those lab classes will move then, but the automotive labs will have to wait longer.

CTE classes are currently being held in the Hedlund building, where they have been held until now.

Welding classes are taking place at Kootenai Technical Education Campus, which is letting the CTE program use its facilities until Labor Day when the new building will be accessible.

Each lab class will have to take a week’s break in order to relocate the programs, but classroom time will continue uninterrupted.

According to Mark Browning, the vice president for communications and government relations, there will be minimal impact on the students.

“It’s a balance between working in the labs on machines and being in classrooms,” he said. “So they’re front-loading more of that classroom instruction to the front part of the semester, then it will load a bit heavier to the lab instruction once this building is fully open.”

Browning also said this couldn’t have been done without the great effort of the faculty of the CTE program.

“They have been just tremendous working through the challenges that have come up. When you build a new facility like that... it’s a challenge for everybody, but my hat goes off to those faculty and those division chairs and the leadership in the CTE,” he said. “They are just so dedicated, it’s been outstanding to watch, truly inspirational.”

The new CTE building will be able to host larger class sizes and eliminate the current wait list. Also, the welding program formerly took place in a leased building off campus. Now, the welding classes can take place in the same building as the other technical classes offered at NIC.

The new building is still lacking funding for its equipment replacement and scholarship funds. According to Rayelle Anderson, director of development at NIC, the program has raised $4.4 million of its $5 million goal.

“We are just getting ready to launch the public phase of our Building the Future campaign,” Anderson said. “For the next six to 12 months we will be reaching out to the greater community, asking them to help complete the campaign.”

There will be a public ribbon cutting and open house at the new facility Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 4 p.m. The new CTE building is located at 7064 W. Lancaster Road, Rathdrum.